Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Sailor SunHeart
by Jateshi
Summary: Galaxia's gone so what is this new enemy on the horizon? Why is there a new senshi on the scene claiming that the Dark Kingdom is back? Trust me, she's not your usual senshi - and why has evil suddenly become smart? A mature Usagi, future f/f pairings
1. Prologue: Broken Peace

**Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Sailor SunHeart**

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon - Naoko Takeuchi does - I do own all of the original characters in this fanfiction though.  
Rating: PG13 at most.  
Author's Note: I've been working on SunHeart for a long time and decided to share it here to. :3 Prologue times! How DID the Dark Kingdom get revived?

* * *

**-=Prologue: Broken Peace=-**

The earth below them was in turmoil; lightening laced the sky making a latticework stretching from the clouds to the earth. Earthquakes made the ground itself tremble, the great darkness of Chaos itself poised on the brink of swallowing the world whole. With a flick of her hand the Queen activated her sphere, her sun-gold eyes staring at the scene projecting itself to the Court.

The Court showed no signs of the great defeat they had suffered five years ago at the hands of a small Princess and her senshi-comrades. The once-dank Palace had been remodeled by the new Queen, ever-shifting energy walls replaced by black and forest-green marble; the halls were unblemished marble now, no longer riddled with cracks and strain or signs of a weak Queen. Everywhere the Dark Kingdom was reborn: the vision of the new Queen, one who already had firm control of Metallia.

The changes in the Dark Kingdom had been swift, the young ruler opting to remove any remnants of the old rule instead of trying to work with them. Not a single youma who had survived the purifying blast of energy from the ginzuishou had been allowed to live - a new army had been built from their blood, flesh, and deaths. Alongside the new youma ranks, the Queen had called upon a long-forgotten weapon to be used against the senshi, the Black Rank Commanders; to the Queen's right stood the proud leaders of the Dark Kingdom 's Army, six sets of eyes watching both the Court and their liege.

"My dear friends," Another flick of her hand stopped the images, all eyes reverting from the globe's projections to the Queen. "Now is the time we shall begin to move." With a thought, and without any grandiose motion, the Queen called upon the powers of Metallia; the seal on the Dark Kingdom that had held for five long years shattered easily, giving way under the constant pressure of dark energies sent at it. The ripple of power shook the ground under the Court's feet, the amassed youma army giving a cheer when they felt the barrier crumble. If the senshi had been paying attention, or if anyone on earth had been paying attention, they would have seen the cloud of darkness covering the moon from behind. But the Sailor Senshi were battling Galaxia and her army of Star Seed-less Sailor Senshi, their moon-guardian cats busy trying to help their charges stay alive. With the battles happening on earth, ripping the planet into shreds, no one noticed the seconds-long darkness against the backdrop of nearly eternal war.

"Jedite," the Queen called, one of the six men and women to her right stepping forward at the sound of his name, "Go to earth. Begin slow attacks on Europe ." Her eyes narrowed on the bowed man before her, her hand raised in a hover over the sphere. "I trust you will not make the same mistakes again, Jedite."

A flicker of distaste crossed Jedite's face, the man's hand curling against his chest in his salute. Trust the Queen to bring up his most horrific failures in front of them... Ice-blue eyes darted to his left, looking at the five men and women clothed in the Dark Kingdom 's Black Rank uniform. They smirked at him or offered mock-sympathetic glances when they caught his attention; they didn't understand how it had been. After all, Queen Beryl had been afraid of the Black Ranks, afraid of their reputed power. Beryl had preferred to manipulate the Oath to make the four highest Generals to be nothing more than mindless slaves, never minding that it had been her own desire to control their actions that brought about every last one of their failures.

Beryl's fear had caused Nephrite's defection and murder; Zoisite's death; Kunzite's death. None of those men had been incompetent before Beryl's manipulations, none of them would have fallen to the weak Sailor Senshi as easily as they had all done. Beryl had been the reason he had failed, although she had not killed him. Rising from his bow, Jedite disappeared from the Court, appearing over the skies of London for a split second.

Beryl's mercy had left him imprisoned in a never-ending nightmare; it would have been more merciful to have left him join his fellow Generals in death. Beryl's death had freed him from his prison and Tanzanite's ascension to the Throne of the Dark Kingdom had restored his sanity. And although he could still feel the mental hooks of the Oath in the back of his mind, clinging to parts of his soul and magic, he wasn't cocooned by the bonds.

Snapping his fingers Jedite sent a single youma to target the youths at the strip mall, instructing it to vanish after a handful of successful drains of energy - he wouldn't make the same mistakes this time.


	2. Chapter One: A New Evil?

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Sailor SunHeart

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon - Naoko Takeuchi does - I do own all of the original characters in this fanfiction though.  
Rating: PG13 at most.  
Author's Note: I've been working on SunHeart for a long time and decided to share it here to. :3

* * *

**-=Chapter One: A New Evil? A Mysterious Senshi Appears!=-**

The city skylines looked almost all the same the world over; buildings rose and fell, steel statues clawing their way towards the moon and stars. Lights flickered as citizens illuminated or plunged themselves into darkness, the effect of a city's lights controlled by individuals as entrancing as patterned tree lights - sparkles that quickly lost their appeal when the pattern emerged. The only changes in cities around the globe came in the flavor of the streets, the neon signs that lit every corner and niche of alleyway up with a burst of sickly green brightness.

She'd followed the darkness from London, interrupting their plans before the major events came to fruition; wherever they showed up, she was chasing them, a few days or maybe a week behind. London had been their first target - she hadn't figured out _why_ yet, but it really didn't make much of a difference to her plans - and then they'd moved on. There was a small tug at her conscience when she'd packed up her flat in the lower east end of London but it'd been squished resolutely with a short note left tacked on the inside of her door, along with a few hundred pounds in an envelope to take care of the damage to the interior of the apartment.

And now, dark blue eyes narrowing contemptuously at the city below her feet, they were in Tokyo. For no apparent reason, the youma and its masters had abandoned more profitable 'feeding' grounds just to get after Tokyo - the home of the Moon Kingdom's senshi. Red hair flying behind her like a banner and the two half-capes falling from her shoulder guards flapping with every step she ran, the senshi threw herself up into the air and off of the building's rooftop.

The youma she was chasing had managed to get a few hundred feet ahead with a neat teleportation trick. If she'd gotten the youma's observed habits right there would be a glimmer to her right or left; exactly on schedule a small twinkle caught her eyes a mere seconds before a hail of daggers did their best to draw even more blood. She'd been surprised by the attack at first, the slashes in her capes and uniform itself proof enough to that.

"This is getting ridiculous," she muttered, waiting until the last possible second before throwing herself out of the way of another barrage of daggers. They were having a fight in Tokyo city - right near the Juuban mall in fact - and no one seemed to notice it. Granted, one more handful of daggers being flung her way as she contemplated, no one else seemed to be around but there were senshi here in Tokyo that _should_ be the ones dealing with this. It wasn't her duty to protect earth and its people, it just happened to be what she was doing at the moment; with the youma quite determined to attack her, protecting the earth and its people was more self-preservation than anything else.

Grabbing the spike from her headpiece the red-haired girl whirled it above her head, flames slowly spreading around until they created a literal disc of flames above her head. With an angry shout and a crack of the whip, the disc rushed at the youma. The next sound to pierce the silence of Tokyo's night was a human-like scream as the youma turned to ash.

* * *

According to Pluto this was supposed to have been a peaceful time period. Now that Galaxia had been defeated, she'd told the two advisors, there would be peace until the earth stood still for a thousand years, before the birth of Crystal Tokyo. Sadly, as the two cats flipped through the newspapers, headsets tossed aside after listening to international news reports, it didn't seem to be the case any longer. Pluto had warned both Luna and Artemis that time itself was fluid and subject to change, but this was something that she should have seen.

"We're going to have to face reality, Luna," the white cat said, one paw smoothing the fur around his ears. "We need to call a senshi meeting tonight at the temple and plan for a new enemy." His voice matched the somber and unhappy expression in his bright blue eyes, looking across the pillow to his partner.

With great care Luna closed the last newspaper, her head bowed to stare at the headline of the American's Daily Sun. Letting out a sigh Luna nodded after only a short while, red eyes closing. "I agree. We'll gather the senshi tonight at Hikawa Temple." Looking up at the white cat, Luna gave him a mild smile. "I suppose we've had a vacation for some time - it could have been worse." Standing up on all paws, Luna walked towards the room's open door. "I'll see you then, Artemis?" She waited until the other cat nodded before jumping out the door, breaking into a run once she arrived at the hallway.

* * *

Tsukino Usagi, the protector and keeper of the greatest power in the universe - the Imperial Silver Crystal, more commonly called the ginzuishou - arrived last to the meeting. Rei set the tea out, an indulgent smile on her face as she heard Usagi racing her way up the temple's steps. Phobos and Deimos cawed her arrival to the temple proper, Usagi giving a shriek at the unexpected sounds - the rest of the senshi inside the temple chuckled and then winced as the following sounds of a crash, bang, stumble, and then thud filled the hall. With practiced ease Rei slid the door to the room they used for meetings aside, Usagi having collided with Luna just shy of the door itself.

"Try to be on time, Usagi..." Rei murmured, rolling back the sleeves of her miko shirt as she headed back inside the room. Usagi followed Rei inside, re-adjusting her well-known hairstyle with a sheepish smile.

"Gomen, gomen," she said while brushing the dust from her clothing, "Shingo wouldn't get to sleep for a half-hour later than he used to. And then Mama and Papa were..." Usagi trailed off in a blush, coughing to clear her throat. Covering the awkward moment she settled into the open spot, looking around the room. "Where's Michiru, Haruka, Setsuna, and Hotaru? I thought this was a full senshi meeting, not just our Inner team...."

One ear flicking in annoyance, Artemis leapt up on top of the table, sitting himself on the small cushion Minako had placed there for him. "They said they would handle things in their own way." Minako, remembering how much Artemis had been seething after his visit to the Outer senshi, carefully gave him a scratch behind the ears. "They're acting just like they always have."

Ami Mizuno let out the softest sigh of the five senshi, getting out her computer and bringing up the display. The action, something so familiar to them all (and something they had all hoped was long behind them), brought the meeting to a start, Ami typing as Luna and Artemis began to speak.

"We didn't notice it at first, since we had been resting since the final battle with Sailor Galaxia, but something's up, ladies." In no-nonsense terms Luna and Artemis took turns outlining the slow emergence of sun spots, the compiled news reports from around the globe about strange outbreaks of anemia or sleepy-sickness, and then the recent reports from Tokyo itself. In silence, once the two cats had finished talking, the senshi sat; of all of the five girls, Usagi was the first one to gather her wits and speak, putting everything into concise sentences.

"I guess the Sailor Senshi have to come out of retirement, don't they?" She sounded resigned, her bright blue eyes determined and sad at the same time. Luna licked Usagi's arm comfortingly, rubbing against the girl's hand; Luna knew just how much Usagi had enjoyed being a normal, regular girl again, even if it had only managed to last a year. Standing up, Usagi managed to catch Luna in her arms, holding the cat firmly as she looked at her senshi. "Well ladies, let's go protect Tokyo."

Slightly stunned by Usagi's actual leadership ability the four girls nodded slowly, their agreement tinged with newfound respect. Luna had told them that Usagi had gotten better after the fight with Galaxia - even Mamoru had commented on it one time while visiting Rei to work in solitude on a project for his studies. But this light in her eyes, the way she was looking at Ami and asking her for possible attack sites and locations they would need to begin watching - this was new to them all. Even Artemis answered her softly-phrased questions with the deference due a princess, Luna herself managing to look so proud she was fit to burst.

"I know we never did regular patrols of the streets," Usagi began, once it seemed that she'd asked enough questions for the moment, "But we might want to begin doing it, at least until we know exactly what we're facing. If we alternate, we can also avoid being too tired to make it to classes," Usagi sent Minako a wink, the girls giggling. Even with all of the maturity the final fight against Galaxia had seemingly imparted to Usagi she still never managed to make it to class on time; she was almost always late, frequently with Minako as her hallway companion.

"Luna, Artemis-" Usagi looked at the two cats, setting Luna down onto the pillow beside the white advisor, "Is there any way we can upgrade our communicators to something that doesn't make us look like we're talking into watches?" The idea was one each of the senshi perked up at until the two advisors shook their heads against it. "Oh well," Usagi said cheerfully as she picked up a pillow and held it in her lap, "it was worth a try." The five girls broke into laughter and soon, once another round of tea was poured, they set down to planning their patrol rotations.

* * *

One by one the five black-clad Commanders stepped towards the dais, gloved hands over their left breast in a salute and show of support to their Queen as they bowed. For some of the Commanders, hair brushed and fell past their faces, strands spilling past collars to create colored curtains as they held their positions; one lone Commander's cape swept the floor with her bow. Each of them held a precise angle as they waited for their Queen to recognize their presence, military precision echoed in their posture, the clean press of their uniforms, and even the weapons that adorned their uniforms.

"Jedite," the Queen's voice - strong, passionate but commanding and alluring at the same time - called out; the Commanders still held their bows, waiting in a perfect absence of further motion. In the middle of the large Throne room Jedite's image flickered into place, the General inclining his head in a bow to his Queen. With a wave of her hand, Tanzanite stopped Jedite from any more Court formalities he might have entertained pursuing. "Report on your progress."

All of the assembled Court could see the image flicker in its place as Jedite righted himself again. Wind, absent in the Dark Kingdom for the time being, moved locks of his blonde hair, teasing some to come loose from the curls it naturally fell into; the faint impression of forest behind Jedite gave no real indication of where he was. "My Queen, the operation has begun in Tokyo, as you requested. I am gathering energy from humans who come into the park in slow increments." His pale blue eyes looked to the Queen's left and saw the five still-bowing figures, his expression changing for a half second.

If the Commanders had been granted leave to stand their own expressions would have mirrored each other's with something more like disgust at their situation. The last time Jedite had reported to their Queen two of the Commanders had been in the field as well, managing similar operations on other parts of the globe. Now all five of them were present – the best of the Dark Kingdom's military, forced to remain in the Kingdom and nearly forbidden from making missions of their own to help the progress on earth.

"My Queen, if I might question the-" he seemed slightly hesitant to be bringing the subject up before their Queen but still, safer due to distance, he plowed on - until Tanzanite raised her hand, an arc of black lightning leaving her fingers and hitting the General in the chest. Jedite knew better than to do anything so silly as scream at the sudden pain but he bit through his lip, hand clenching his uniform unusually tight as he sketched a bow of apology.

Lowering her hand, Tanzanite's eyes flashed over black. "You will continue your operation in Tokyo, Jedite. We are done playing with the rest of the world - we will now move on to our main objective." Tanzanite waited until Jedite had bowed one more time to her and the Court before dismissing his mirage, letting wisps of black energy fade into the floor. Her golden eyes turned to the motionless Commanders now, a smile curving her lips up into an expression remarkably like the old Queen's. "You may rise, my Commanders," she said after a long pause.

Slowly, and in order of rank and privilege, the Commanders finally righted themselves, the highest ranking officer of the group standing upright last of all. The unspoken but implied command to stand at-ease was taken by the five officers, each of them clasping hands behind their backs identically and standing with legs slightly apart for better balance. Aside from the accent piping and front panels of their uniforms (and their individual character traits of hair, face shape, build and eye colors) they could have been a single person made five times over; perhaps, Tanzanite's critical eye decided after it found every slight nuance to tell her beloved Commanders apart, it was that they had all trained together for so long that they emulated each other's stances, posturing, and habits so well. She could attest to the discipline and standards the Black Ranks held themselves to, having been second-in-command until Beryl's downfall.

"Commander Pyrite, please outline the proposal you have come to bring before me." Tanzanite's eyes flicked over her former commanding officer's posture, noting the stiff neck and shoulders and the way Pyrite's hand was curled into a tight fist when she bowed.

Stepping forward, Pyrite took two steps and halted suddenly, her cape hitting the back of her uniform with a soft _tss_ of fabric against fabric; just as quickly as she'd stopped Pyrite dropped into another bow and then stood straight. Angling her head back, allowing her tall ponytail to fall away from her body and helping to keep her twin, long bangs from blocking her vision, Pyrite dropped her hand from her chest. "My Queen, I ask that you allow the Commanders to resume operations in our former global locations."

Red eyes met gold ones, the four remaining Black Ranks holding their breath as Pyrite stood alone before the Queen; Jedite had been blasted via their Oath for saying the same thing – what fate was Pyrite incurring with her brash words? The silent battle raged on but slowly Pyrite showed signs of losing, flinches around the corners of her eyes before her head sunk into a bow, hand rising to fist above her left breast.

"As you wish, your Majesty." Neither Pyrite nor Tanzanite showed anything else of their battle, simply taking the conflict in stride and moving on to the next order of business. "In that case, I ask that the Black Ranks be given permission to return to our undercover personae on earth and relocate them to Tokyo. Our various backgrounds will give us the ability to monitor our operations from the human side of earth, as well as allow us to stake out more specific targets for future attacks."

Every Commander looked towards their Queen now, waiting for her verdict. Tanzanite leaned back into her embracing Throne, fingers reflexively moving inches above the surface of the scepter as she considered the request. Knowing her Commanders as well as she did Tanzanite knew that even if she refused their mission, most of them, if not all of them, would relocate their personas anyways. It was a small measure of freedom that her blessing would grant, and a great help towards the greater goal of once and for all destroying the cursed Moon Kingdom.

Happy Commanders made for productive, creative, and determined Commanders. She could call them back to the Dark Kingdom at whim – and she knew they would do nothing to risk their ability to relocate to earth at will – and she knew they would come. The Commanders were her most loyal of servants, the most trustworthy denizens of the Dark Kingdom. It fit into her plans to keep them happy and content and allow them to slip the leashes that Beryl had wound so tightly about the General's throats. The Commanders would be endeared to her for their freedoms and would fight more ferociously if they worried that performance would somehow factor into the freedoms they could be granted in the future.

"Unlike my predecessor," Tanzanite said softly, her voice still managing to carry the length and breadth of the Throne room, "I know that my Commanders work best with little more than direction from me." Her eyes moved from Pyrite's to stare at her Commanders, one by one charging them to abide by her decree. "All locations you live in will be accessible to your fellow Commanders – you will make your various personas relate to each other in some way so that people seeing all of you, Jedite include, together will draw no further consideration. You will assist each other in your efforts on earth.

"In addition," Tanzanite added, her hand held up to stop the Commanders from moving, "You will report to me once every two weeks or more, if I feel necessary. I will hear your word before you are dismissed." Steel lay under her voice now, challenging them to heed her will directly. They would find workarounds if they felt her restrictions were too much but then the Oath would catch them; her eyes fell on Krisite before they moved to Beryllium. Such precautions on her part were necessary, when the Commanders were concerned.

"I, Beryllium, do so give my word of honor." Purple eyes met Tanzanite's golden ones before he bowed and teleported away.

"I, Garnet, do so give my word of honor." A sweeping bow accompanied his words, strands of dark blond hair falling around his neck before he, too, teleported away.

"I, Topaz, do so give my word of honor." Her dark blue eyes were closed, long red hair falling around her as she dropped a low and courteous bow to her Queen.

"I, Pyrite, do so give my word of honor." With nary a moment's hesitation after pledging, Pyrite bowed to Tanzanite and vanished from the room.

"I, Krisite, do so give my word of honor." Her light green eyes were devoid of humor – or any other emotion – but her voice carried clearly. With a short bow, Krisite turned on her heels and teleported before she'd taken a step away from the Queen.

In the silence left in their wake Tanzanite stood from her throne, a wave of her hand dismissing the youma gathered in the court and Throne room. For a fleeting moment the marks on her face seemed to fade a little, nothing more than a flicker of light drowning the growing black, but within a heartbeat they were once more as deep and as wide as before.

* * *

For a week, the sailor senshi had been on the trail of the new evil that had begun to work in Tokyo; Rei felt fleeting tremors in the Sacred Fire only moments before they would seem to strike, and their patterns fit nothing the Senshi had encountered before. Instead of attacking for as long as possible, this new enemy had somehow perfected what Makoto grumpily termed the 'surgical strike' technique – five, maybe ten victims all within a hundred meters of each other, all drained as quickly and cleanly as possible. Whoever was behind these attacks allowed nothing to run loose, nothing to cause more than a minor stir in the normal, every day life of the city. Mercury worried that if this was their normal pattern of attacking there stood a good chance that the enemy had been working inside the confines of Tokyo for far longer than they guessed.

Their lucky break came in the dead of night, only a sliver of moonlight and stars making their way through the heavy clouds. On patrol that evening, Rei and Makoto had decided to follow a large group of high schoolers coming back late from an event on their campus. Their hunch paid off when a shadow began slinking after the group. Makoto called for the other senshi to transform and meet them en route, Rei and Makoto themselves slipping off to henshin before returning to following the group again.

A cloud passed between the moon and stars when the enemy struck, the sailor senshi arriving in time to see thin wire wrapped around each of the student's necks, their energy drained by a woman whose hands were made entirely of the same fine wires.

"Mercury," Sailor Moon called out, her hand grasping the Moon Tier tightly, "Make sure you get every reading possible on this enemy! We need to figure out who they are and what they want!" Usagi wasn't the best leader yet though – it would take practice – but at least she knew better than to micromanage her fellow senshi. While Sailor Moon busied herself with small bursts of power from the Tier to fight off the enemy, the other senshi attacked the fine wire draining everyone's energy.

Whoever they were fighting though, they were strong. Sailor Mercury's Aqua Rhapsody could cut through only a few wires and each of the senshi found the same problem. Even Sailor Moon, calling upon greater bursts of power from the Moon Tier, found it hard to fight the enemy, the senshi forced to go on the defensive against her.

"I have to say," a voice greeted the senshi, the woman deferentially bowing to the newest arrival and withdrawing from all of her attacks, "You stood up much better than we were led to believe you might." There was a click-clack as the voice's owner walked forward, the sound that of slightly heeled boots hitting the pavement as he walked.

"Youma Taii-tsu," he called out sharply, the youma bowing again and almost scurrying to the man's side, the cut lengths of finger wires resolving themselves into woven daggers branching off of her hands. Pointing a deep-purple glove at the knot of senshi the man simply flicked his fingers upwards. There was no attack sprouting from his fingers, no words pouring off of his lips, merely that single gesture.

The youma understood the signal – the senshi did not. Taii-tsu took a single step towards the senshi before another voice broke the near-silence, drawing every head to turn up towards the sky and stare.

"Vortex Ignition!" A torrent of flames rained down from the sky, creating a wall of fire between Taii-tsu and the sailor senshi the man had deemed her targets. Fearing the flames the youma drew back, stepping behind the man, knives withdrawing into mere wisps of sharpened claws attached to her hands.

Jumping down from her perch, the woman who'd thrown the attack landed between the youma and man and the sailor senshi, facing the enemies. Red hair hung past her waist, hitting the backs of her knees and her two brown capes fluttered in the light breeze as she stood. Raising her hand, lamplight glittered off of matching bracelets around her wrists, the blood-red garnets reflecting and magnifying every stray ray of light trapped within their grasp.

"Are those-?" Before Jupiter had even finished voicing the question, the four Inner senshi stepped between Sailor Moon and the newcomer, Jupiter and Mars blocking any possible access with outstretched arms.

The man sneered, forgetting the five senshi of Tokyo in favor of taunting the single senshi directly in front of him. "I was wondering when you were going to show up here. Following us around like a dog-"

The woman grinned, head tilting back a fraction. "Someone had to stop your plans, Commander." A slight turn to her left allowed the lamps to reflect off her polished gold shoulder guards, her smile widening as the Commander was forced to lift an arm up to stop the metal's glare.

"Our business isn't with you, senshi," the Commander spit out, taking a step back and to his left to remove himself from the glare. A subtle movement of his hand began directing the youma, the man himself keeping his attention focused on the irksome sailor senshi.

Dark blue eyes narrowed, her gaze transferring to the youma and then back at the Commander. Anger etched in her brows, the woman rose her hand to grab the spire from her headpiece, brown gloves a stark contrast against the gold of her headpiece and the red of her hair. Breaking the spire off, she jerked her hand towards the ground, flames igniting from the gold griped by her hand to form a short whip.

"Sailor senshi," she nearly barked, her voice short and crisp, "Take care of the youma. I'll deal with the Commander." She didn't wait to see if the senshi would follow her orders, or whether or not they even knew how to deal with the youma – she just assumed they would handle it. Cracking the whip against the ground, smoke rising from where the flames licked the pavement, she quickly cracked it forward again.

"You'll deal with me, will you," the Commander taunted, taking a step back to invite the sailor senshi closer. "Well, then we simply _must_ get on a first-name basis. I am Commander Beryllium – you are…?" The wind began to slowly pick up, almost natural – except there wasn't a cloud in the sky or any weather pattern to drive the wind towards frenzy.

"The reason you'll withdraw once the senshi defeat your youma." She offered a cocky smile before she double-lashed the air with her flaming whip, the Commander forced to dodge twice from the spires of flames the senshi sent his way. "Sailor SunHeart." Her head cocked to the left, SunHeart let a smile curve its way onto her lips.

Beryllium's purple eyes slowly raked over the red-haired senshi, taking in the thigh-high dark orange and red boots with small sunburst at the bottom. With barely a break for a bit of skin the boot were followed by medium-orange shorts, a matching bodysuit completing most of the senshi's apparel, accented and broken apart by a brilliant gold design of a sun-in-glory down her chest. The twin brown capes moved with the senshi as they circled each other, lamplight continuously glinting off of her golden shoulder armor as the senshi carefully maneuvered him into as many light glares as possible.

Spots danced in front of his eyes, a ghostly halo of the almost smirking Sailor SunHeart mocking him. He was a Commander – he shouldn't have so much trouble with a little slip of a woman who liked to play with whips! But, as he dodged her attack, Beryllium's eyes widened a hair in recognition.

"_You_," he spit out, eyes narrowing to slits, "are a traitor." His hand flicked sideways, a cutting wall of air slicing through the lamppost, the park bench, and cutting into the sidewalk. He was amused to see SunHeart curse under her breath as she was forced to give up ground to his attack; it felt _good_ to do that to her although he would have preferred inflicting life-threatening harm to her. Barely taking his eyes off of the senshi the Commander checked to see how Taii-tsu was faring against the Moon Kingdom's senshi.

"Try it now, Sailor Moon," the raven-haired senshi yelled out, the remnants of her flaming bow still smoldering in her hands.

Taii-tsu didn't seem to be doing as well as he'd hoped; part of her clothing was torn, flower petals stuck into parts of her outfit. One of her arms hung uselessly at her side with an entire hand of her turns into melted slag. Her once-beautiful hair, all crimson and silvery spikes laced with her own metal wires to create a supported cascade of flowing hair, was melted or tarnished, red-hot glows from some spots where Sailor Mar's fire had turned the metal into nearly-molten strands.

On unspoken accord, neither SunHeart not Beryllium attacked, both watching the Inner senshi's battle against the youma.

Suddenly, a move made perfect with long practice, Sailor Moon gripped her Moon Tier directly in front of her body, arms locked. Time stood still as her grand attack began, the Tier growing until it looked more like a short staff than a magical wand; wind blew her wings, feathers flying around the moon's senshi. "Silver Moon…"

The two outsiders seemed almost enchanted by the silver glow suddenly forming around the senshi, SunHeart and Beryllium assuming similar poses of arms near their waist, hands folded to rest on their forearms.

"Crystal…Power…" Sailor Moon was bringing her Tier up slowly above her arms, a flood of pink energy forming behind her. When the Tier was held above her head in both hands, Sailor Moon shouted out "KISS!" at the top of her lungs, pink and silver energy rushing at the youma.

At first it looked like Taii-tsu would withstand the attack, her arms crossed in front of her body as she braced against it. But the damage to her form had taken its toll on her stamina, eventually a scream ripping out of her throat. Her hair melted away, her arms dissolving and legs turning to silvery dust before she yelled out "Beautiful!" The rest of her body turned to dust with a gust of power from the Tier.

The Inner senshi seemed shocked at her death, Sailor Moon's light blue eyes wide with obvious distress; the youma had sounded too human as it died, Sailor Moon lowering her Tier.

Looking at SunHeart out of the corner of his eye the Commander turned towards the single sailor senshi, hand raised. "Your name on my heart," he said simply, his words so thick with hatred that SunHeart stepped back as if from a blow.

Taking a step towards the Moon Kingdom senshi, Beryllium sketched them a short and mocking bow. "Your names on my heart, White Moon senshi." The sailor senshi cried out in surprise as he blasted them with buffets of wind, little tears ripping into their fukus as the tore longer and longer slashes into the fabric skirts. The four girls formed a protective ring around Sailor Moon, their stances telling the experienced military man that now was not the time to press the fight.

A torrent of wind ripped around his body in a column, spreading wider to send the senshi back a yard with the force of his teleportation. Their hair whipped around their faces, SunHeart's capes tangling with strands of her long red hair; when the wind died down the six sailor senshi were left alone, a small pile of silver dust dragged away by the fading breeze.

Slowly smoothing her capes back out, lifting her mass of red hair back with her off arm until the brown fabric hung free, SunHeart looked back at the Moon Kingdom's senshi. Her grip on her whip lessened, the flames on the spike going out before she returned the spike to her headpiece.

Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter stood in front of Eternal Sailor Moon, still holding their protective stance in the face of this unknown senshi. "Who are you," Jupiter demanded, Eternal Sailor Moon taking a step forward until Mars grabbed her and kept her back.

"Sailor SunHeart," she answered after a beat, letting her curtain of hair fall freely down again. With fluid grace Sailor SunHeart gave the Inner senshi a bow, her right arm tucked against her chest, her left arm straight out as she dipped down; when she stood back up the Inner senshi exchanged concerned looks with each other, each of the senshi spotting the prominent bracelets around both of her wrists.

One shoulder raised higher than the other with her arms crossed together, Sailor Mars looked accusingly at Sailor SunHeart. "You seemed to know exactly who we were fighting. What gave you the right to order us about?" Mars couldn't seem to decide to be angrier about the potential connection or the way the new senshi had blindly given them an order.

SunHeart nodded at the question, her expression moving from confused and slightly puzzled to amused. "You five weren't fighting, you were just staring. What was I supposed to do, sit back and let the youma sneak around and get me from the side?" SunHeart let a trace of annoyance creep into her words, absently rolling her wrist like she was checking an old injury.

"Who was that?" Moon's voice was quiet, her hand clenched over her brooch. "Who was the monster?"

Jupiter looked back at Sailor Moon, concern for her friend and leader easy to read on her face. Sailor Mercury touched her earring, her visor appearing in front of her eyes and her computer in the palm of her hand.

Folding her arms, Sailor SunHeart ran a hand through her bangs. "The youma or the Commander in charge of it," she asked blandly. Before Sailor Moon could pick, SunHeart answered both questions. "The youma was just that – a youma. Not a human, no matter how close it sounded to one in the end." Maybe a little white lie wouldn't hurt them, SunHeart decided pragmatically. "The one commanding it was Beryllium, a Commander from the Dark Kingdom."

She waited for recognition from the senshi, some flash of understanding in their eyes. In the end, silence and blank looks reigned for more than a full minute, SunHeart's expression slowly moving from disbelief to anger.

Mercury tapped her ear again, her visor vanishing. "The Dark Kingdom…?"

"I suggest," SunHeart snapped, "You ask your advisors about them." She let a long pause go before adding, "Again." With that SunHeart left the five stunned senshi behind in a leap, using branches from trees or poles to make her way up to the city's skyline, running off before the senshi had a chance to catch her.

Sailor Moon stared down at the ground, a light breeze making her twin ponytails dance in the moonlight. "Beryllium…youma…the Dark Kingdom – what does it all mean," she whispered questioningly, clenching her hand harder around the golden brooch on her chest.

"Jupiter," Venus called out, "Did you get a close look at those bracelets?" The blonde waited for a nod from Sailor Jupiter before she sighed. "I thought it was over…I thought what happened last year was over and done with."

"Bracelets," Sailor Moon asked, looking at her four senshi curiously.

"She was wearing Galaxia's bracelets, Sailor Moon," Mars explained, nearly groaning as Sailor Moon felt the need to look at each senshi and get a nod from them before she believed Mars.

Gripping her brooch, Sailor Moon's eyes widened and before they closed in sadness. There was a flurry of feathers and light as Sailor Moon detransformed, Usagi standing in her jeans and shirt. Taking that as a signal the rest of the Sailor Senshi detransformed, the five girls moving closer together and doing their best to act like normal, average girls.

"Ami, how much data did you get during the battle," Usagi asked, looking at the blue-haired girl.

"I'll need a day or two to go over it, but I think I have a good start on the new enemy." She sounded quiet but confident, Ami coming alive once put in her element.

"Senshi meeting in two days at the temple, Rei?" Usagi's voice turned the question into a gentle command. Rei and the other three girls nodded. "Well," Usagi looked up at the moon with a forlorn expression haunting her eyes, "I suggest we get home – it's pretty late. Two days, remember."

Every girl voiced their agreement at the date once more before they peeled off in different directions, every girl heading to their home.


	3. Chapter Two: Pieces in Play

**Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Sailor SunHeart**

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon - Naoko Takeuchi does - I do own all of the original characters in this fanfiction though.  
Rating: PG13 at most.  
Author's Note: I've been working on SunHeart for a long time and decided to share it here to. :3

* * *

**-=Chapter Two: Pieces in Play=- **

There were five ordinary looking people sitting at the Azabu Café when Pyrite arrived, all of them looking anxiously at the newcomer. Fishing out a small golden medallion from the back pocket of her jeans Pyrite tossed the coin into the center of a pile of similar medallions. 'Chink' and the unique sound of spinning metal were all that passed between the group until the coin fell to rest atop the other five coins in the middle of the café's table.

One woman, red hair pulled back into a neat and perfect braid which fell to the middle of her back, picked up the medallion; tilting the item, a 'P' flashed to the sights of all of the seated five. The effect was instantaneous – all five marginally relaxed, settling themselves more comfortably into their seats as the red-haired woman directed their new arrival to the last open chair.

Sliding into the chair and taking a few moments to make sure she was comfortable in it, Pyrite fingered her short-cropped bangs before pushing them aside. It'd been quite some time since she'd been on earth in her human disguise (the other Commanders had all been sent to earth but had she? No – she'd been forced to content herself with directing the campaign) so she had to get used to the way her bangs now tended to fall in her eyes. Her red eyes, magically tinted to appear far browner than they really were, looked over her tablemates with open amusement and hidden pride. With the exception of Jedite – at least the man she assumed to be Jedite, his ice-blue eyes the exact shade and his hair only somewhat longer than his true form's – her fellow Commanders had made their human disguises well.

"I'm Sana Kyo," Pyrite said genially, her face a bright and easy-going with a warm smile on her lips. Every body around the small table was vaguely familiar, either from a class or someone she'd seen through her part-time job. "I work at the computer labs," Kyo pointed vaguely towards the rest of the campus, "when not taking classes." Now she held her hand out to the red-haired woman, Kyo waiting until the 'P' stamped medallion was deposited into her palm before flashing an honest smile of thanks at her.

Fingers digging to the bottom of the pile, the man with the ice-blue eyes pulled out a 'J' emblazoned medallion. Flashing the 'J' around to the small group he waited until he caught a nod of recognition from each of the other five before pocketing the gold coin. "My name's Jason Korbitz," he said clearly, though in slightly-accented Japanese. His English surname perfectly matched the faint undertones of an English-speaker's accent in his words and offered a reasonable explanation for his pale blonde hair, mostly cropped short with a trail of hair falling down the back of his neck. The five Commanders kept their tongue on his limited creativity, each pair of eyes noting that nothing other than the length of his hair had been changed.

Leaning over the table now, a lanky man dug a 'B' marked coin from the pile, twisting it to show them all. "I'm Professor Sanson," he announced in his barely-detectably-accented Japanese, "though my friends call me Jared. I'm doing a visiting lecture series at Azabu as part of an alliance between this campus and my campus, MIT." Jared slid the coin into a pocket on his jeans, light purple eyes framed by crinkles as he smiled and ran a hand through his spiky sandy-blond hair. He didn't look old enough to be a professor but from the whispers already circulating on campus Jared Sanson was a whiz with ocean biology and a hard grader who expected his students to work for their grades.

Moving delicately and her free hand holding back her long sleeves, long and thing fingers picked out a 'K' stamped medallion and showed it around. "My name is Myou Shouka." Shou's musical voice turned the simple phrase into something more, almost singing her words. Pale green eyes studied the others around the table with a welcoming (if artistically distant) smile, raising a hand to re-tuck a long strand of pale blue hair behind an ear again. "When I'm not performing with my study's concerts, I give voice lessons to the middle and high school student who have shown promise in the art." Shou slid the coin into her small handbag, every motion and action she made delicate.

With a flourish, Kou presented each woman present with a small rosebud of a pale yellow color, his warm brown eyes lighted with open amusement. Lightly curled brown hair touched the tops of his eyes and, at the back, fell down far enough to touch the very top of his collar. "I'm Tsuka Koujou, the head floral designer over at the Juuban shopping center." After the introduction, Kou picked up the 'G' stamped medallion from the remains of the pile, letting it drop into a pocket on his tailored vest.

The small rose tucked behind an ear Tora picked up the final coin, stamped with a 'T' on the surface, and shoved it into her trouser pocket. Adjusting her black oval-rimmed glasses, the woman smiled. "I'm Kyuusetsu Tora, a new part-timer at Juuban's BookStop store." Brown eyes were lit with an inner joy as she smiled in greeting at them all, her neatly-braided red hair falling to the middle of her back, bangs swept to the sides of her face to avoid their lengths falling into her eyes.

Silence reigned after the introductions, each Commander (and the sole General) looking around to search their memory for other places and times they'd seen each other. Kyo raised her hand, a prim little freshman coming up as quickly as possible to take her order; they all held a friendly silence until the girl returned, an assorted six tea cups and mugs set down and two pots of tea placed in the center of the table.

"If you need anything else, just let one of us waiters know," the girl said with a parting smile, slipping a handful of sugar packets out of her apron and setting them down as well. Adjusting her apron as she walked off, the girl's eyes took in the odd group in a second, shrugged, and thought of them no more. It was probably just a bunch of students meeting for a study session – they all had that look about them, harried like everyone appeared before exams.

Picking up one of the teapots Kyo poured herself a cup, turning the handle as she set it down so the next person over could pour their own cup. "Now that the introductions have been made," her fingers curled around the quickly-warming cup as she sipped, "we can get down to business."

* * *

Two days after their first battle the five senshi (all in civilian form, of course) gathered at the Hikawa temple and shrine; they perched easily on the stone steps leading up to and surrounding the main part of the shrine. None of the five girls spoke as they sat, looking back and forth at each other a few times but mostly letting their attention fix on the steps leading up to the shrine itself.

Artemis and Luna had gone to get the Outer senshi for the meeting, the Inner senshi waiting until the two advisors brought the other girls before considering whether or not they should begin. The enemy had been strong, Usagi pointed out to the cats – they might need the advantages the older senshi brought to their fights. So even though no one had really expected them to agree to the meeting, Luna and Artemis had run off to let them know about it. When the two cats – alone – reappeared over the crest of the tree-framed path, the assembled girls sighed.

"They refused to come again, Usagi," Luna said sadly, tail flicking around her haunches in the same way an agitated cat's did. "They said they'll do things their own way, the same as last time." Her fur rose at the last words, a flicker of mixed emotions crossing everyone's eyes at the remembrance of what 'last time' had become.

Artemis and Luna seemed almost resigned to the Outer senshi's actions – but the Inner senshi weren't.

"What do they think they're doing," Rei burst out angrily. "They might be from the Outer Solar System but their mission is the same as ours!" Her violet eyes were narrowed in anger, hands curled into fists at her sides. Fast as a thought Rei punched one of the stone pillars supporting the shrine's main arch, two ravens crying out in surprise as a tremor worked up the stone. "Someone needs to teach them a lesson!"

Jumping down from her perch, Minako frowned at Rei and pulled her friend's hand away from the pillar. Fingers brushed over the reddened surface, lips twitching in annoyance before poking Rei in the chest. "And who's going to teach them that lesson – a hot-headed priestess?" Blue eyes filled with determination, Minako looked at the rest of the senshi. "None of us four can teach them that lesson – and we know it. They fight better than we do, they're stronger than we are; we can't teach them anything when it comes to a fight."

Makoto, poised to make her own attack against a tree, stopped, the steam out of her anger. Ami looked up, startled, from her computer screen. Rei sighed but when she dropped her eyes from Minako's she nodded agreement. Usagi though, had a calm air about her.

"I can, though." Minako looked over at Usagi, the two girls – so close in physical appearance that they could've been twins – sharing a smile and a nod. "Luna, Artemis," the two advisors snapped to attention at the sound of their names, "The next time I send you to the Outers, tell them their Princess orders them to come." The serious air about Usagi shattered as she giggled, fingers making a quick run-through of her bangs. "And promise you'll tell us all what kinds of faces they make, too."

Even the cats had a laugh at Usagi's comment, Luna being polite enough to hide her chuckles behind a paw. "We promise. But now girls, I think we'd better begin." Luna's orange eyes looked to Usagi. "What happened, exactly, at the battle?"

Showing the first signs of the true ability to lead and manage people, Usagi grinned and turned to Ami. "I know what I remember, but we all know my memory's a bit…flawed. Ami-chan, could you run through what we learned from that senshi?"

Pulling reading glasses from her face, Ami nodded to Usagi with a warm smile on her face. "Of course, Usagi-chan. Rei-chan and Mako-chan called us when the group they were following was attacked by the enemy. Shortly after we arrived, the person controlling the monster showed themselves – they were wearing a very militaristic-looking uniform. They ordered the youma – the monster – to attack us and appeared to be about to join the attack when a new senshi arrived."

Luna and Artemis both sat up straighter at the news of another senshi; once new senshi had been greeted with only slight trepidation – but that was before Galaxia's bracelet-controlled senshi had come to earth. News of a new senshi, especially as they knew that the court of the Moon contained no other senshi besides the Outers and the Inners, wasn't good news now.

Ami flipped her computer around, the screen showing a rough approximation of the senshi's uniform and appearance. "She called herself Sailor Sun Heart." With a tap on the keypad, the image zoomed in and circled around the senshi's matching bracelets. "My computer couldn't do a full analysis, but the bracelets contain a lot of power – like Galaxia's did."

"So she's another enemy," Artemis asked, looking at Luna (who had her ears flat against her skull) and the senshi.

"She helped us," Usagi stated. "She drew off the man commanding the youma – she called him 'Commander Beryllium' as well – and fought him alone, giving us the chance to defeat the youma." Her lips turned to a frown, trying to recall just how much time the senshi had fought against the man and what she could remember of their fight; it was disconcerting to think that their battle with a single enemy had been so difficult that no real particulars of the other senshi's battle came to mind.

"She ordered us to take care of the youma, Usagi," Rei said with a hint of anger. Her arms were folded against her chest, hands clenching the sleeves of her miko robes with a reawakened ire at the senshi. "She just assumed we would do what she told us, she didn't ask for our help or offer her own."

"It was like," Minako said softly, "She and the Commander had fought before. Artemis, you said it looked like there had been attacks all over the world, didn't you? Was there a pattern to them?"

Artemis and Luna looked between each other, sharing a mildly surprised expression. "The attacks would go for about one week and then fade off, before starting in a new location."

Tapping one finger against her cheek, Minako chuckled. "You mean it was kind of like how things would peter out when Sailor V would move to a new city…?" Minako saw Artemis slowly nod, shaking her head with a smile herself. "I think this new senshi has been fighting the enemy all along – it just seems so much like how you and I fought when I was Sailor V."

"But…" Makoto shook her head, brown ponytail whipping around her. "She's got a pair of Galaxia bracelets around her wrists – that means she's working for someone and that someone's taken her Star Seed. I think it could be a giant set-up, to trick us into letting this senshi get close to us and then hurt our Princess." Makoto suddenly punched a fist against the flat of her other hand. "I won't let that happen."

"Ami-chan," Usagi asked softly, the other senshi falling silent, "What do you think?" Usagi had her own opinion about the senshi – but Ami had been remarkably quiet about everything after she'd told the bare facts.

Closing her computer, Ami gave Usagi a sad half-smile. "I agree with Rei-chan, Minako-chan, and Mako-chan – I don't know if we can trust her, Usagi-chan. I can't confirm that she's got bracelets that act the same way Galaxia's did – but I can't prove that she doesn't, either."

Now Usagi tapped a finger against her cheek – once, twice, three times. "All right – next time we see her, we need to get some facts about who she is out of her before we trust her – or before we attack her. Next order of business, though, senshi – the enemy." Usagi's eyes were clear again, determined – and looking pointedly at the two advisors. "Who is the Dark Kingdom?"

"The Dark Kingdom," Luna repeated, voice holding hints of disbelief. "Usagi-chan, minna…you defeated the Dark Kingdom years ago – it was your first battle." Her tail curled around her haunches tightly, pressed against her fur. "Queen Beryl destroyed the Moon Kingdom, along with Metallia, and Queen Serenity sealed the Dark Kingdom in return. When I first awoke you as senshi, it was to fight against the Dark Kingdom."

"You girls went to Point D," Artemis continued, giving Luna a comforting lick. "You defeated Queen Beryl and destroyed her, and destroyed the Dark Kingdom along with her. The Generals, the youma – you girls destroyed it all. There is no 'Dark Kingdom' any longer." Artemis ended his sentence with an air of finality.

Ami shook her head. "Sun Heart claims that the new enemy is from the Dark Kingdom." Around her, the other girls nodded their heads.

Luna and Artemis looked at each other. "It's impossible," Luna said softly, Artemis nodding agreement.

"I guess that's something else we need to clarify," Usagi grumbled, arms curled up like a pillow as she rested her head atop the steps.

* * *

Slipping the neck loop of the brown apron over her head Tora let it hang loose and free while she slid and tugged the fabric, waiting until the loop had fitted itself under the collar of her pressed Oxford. The cream shirt was buttoned up almost entirely, the topmost button undone, and the shirttails were tucked into the waist of the woman's black trousers. Her black-rimmed glasses slid down her nose when she reached to her back, grabbing for the ties and knotting them together into a messy bow around her waist. With the apron tied Tora smoothed the front of it, tweaking the position of her nametag with a sly grin on her lips.

Working at the local bookstore wasn't so bad; the pay was fairly decent (even if she didn't need the money, she needed the appearance of needing the money) and the place was filled with books. She was lucky to get the job – the store had already hired a person a few weeks before her arrival, a girl who Tora thought was either English or American, but had agreed to take her on part-time. Cassandra London was a bright girl, already good at dealing with the customers and irksome students with an ease Tora half-heartedly envied.

Her eyes looked at the clock hung across from the registers, checking the time. The Commanders had discussed possible targets over their tea a day ago and bandied about using their own job locations as 'hits' for amusement. The university campus was a tempting target, they'd all agreed, but almost too obvious to go for; the decision to wait on attacking the campus had been reached even though Jedite had protested.

"I'm going to straighten the shelves, Miss London," Tora called out, giving the other girl a warm smile. Cassandra was something of a puzzle to Tora – they'd been working together for a few days and there was something…odd about her. Something that pushed Tora's pulse up a few beats and kept her breath just a bit harder to catch when in close proximity; that wouldn't do to happened today – not when there were plans for the afternoon.

Cassandra smiled and waved Tora off, her layered black hair shaking gently with the motion. "I'll give you a call if I need some help up here," she assured her, rewarded with a quick grin on Tora's face before she faded into the shelves.

Checking her braid, tucking the few strands that had mystically gotten loose back into the weave, Tora started to head to the back of the store. Stopping at the science-fiction section the woman began looking over the books, collecting a small pile of ones shoved into the wrong place and settling them on the crook of her arm. Moving methodically through the section Tora put the wayward books back into their places, running her finger down the spine of many of the books as she did so. In ten minute's time, Beryllium would summon a youma that would work its way through the sidewalk in front of the bookstore. In fifteen minute's time, the youma would come in to the store and begin an obvious attack.

Sliding a Clarke book back into its home, Tora continued to work until she head a shriek from outside the store. It was quite a distance off – no one inside the store would have heard it yet, or thought it was anything out of the ordinary – but she very slowly began to work her way up through the store again anyways. There was a chance the youma would look incredibly odd and start garnering more attention faster than they had allowed.

"HELP ME!" Someone crashed through the store's front glass display window, thrown that way by a gust of wind. Tora ran to the front now, playing the part of the dutiful employee to the hilt. Helping the woman up, slinging her arm across her own shoulder, Tora tried to shake her awake. The screams were starting up outside now, more and more people shrieking and yelling and screaming and crying as the youma began a full assault.

And then it stepped in the doorway, looking around at the employees and patrons in turn. The youma appeared to be made entirely out of whirling wind, faint impressions of color giving her pale skin and blue clothing and hair. It snarled as soon as it saw the woman across Tora's shoulder, flinging its hand out and forward; Tora stared in frank fascination as the youma attacked her, letting a cry of surprise (that passed for a fair impression of pain) tear from her lips. She didn't have to act pained as she hit the wooden book stands, thrown entirely through one to crash into a second.

"Everybody out, now!" Cassandra darted around the youma (its hands were wrapped around the neck of the woman Tora had tried to save, draining energy from her) to get to Tora. Sliding the other woman's arm around her shoulders, she hefted the barely conscious Tora to her feet. "Come on," she urged, the two managing to stumble to the employee side door and out of the fray. Cassandra slowly helped Tora sit on the ground, fingers pushing bangs aside and trying to visually check for injuries. Finding no injuries that she could spot, Cassandra shifted the protesting Tora to lean against the wall.

"We'll be safe here," Cassandra assured her, looking down the alley to the street itself. Bodies (though none of them appeared to be dead) littered the place already – this thing was strong. "The Sailor Senshi will show up soon." Looking at the woman against the wall, Cassandra worried her lip before sighing. "I'll be right back – don't go anywhere." Slipping back into the store itself, Cassandra found the nearest victim and pulled her back to the alleyway, helping her sit against the wall. "Tora, I could really use your-"

The alley was empty.

* * *

"Come out, come out, wherever you are…" Beryllium watched his youma go after targets recklessly (it had disregarded his orders to go about gathering motes of energy quietly – hopefully the senshi would show up soon and do him the favor of destroying it before he had to deal with the rascal), thanking the stars that its actions would draw attention sooner. While the city of Tokyo wasn't gripped in the talons of winter, the wind did whip down the alleys fairly well; he could have brought the errant gusts of wind to heel but his attention was forcibly focused elsewhere.

The air rippled subtly, followed shortly afterwards by the sound of a boot tapping on the pavement behind his current position. "This is too much like the old methods for my taste," Krisite declared, giving her dark green gloves a firm tug. "Send a youma out, rampage, draw the sailor senshi out – that reeks of the Generals and their plans." Her hair rippled faintly as she stepped until she was beside Beryllium.

"It was Jedite's plan to begin with," he returned with a shrug. "What can you expect from him Krisite – he's just a General. Pyrite went along with it for her own reasons, you know it as well as I do." Suddenly Beryllium chuckled, giving his fellow Commander an amused look. "I think most of why she agreed to it was to show Jedite how stupid the idea is – after this debacle, he'll shut up and let us plan like we wanted to from the start."

Jedite had found that there was a wedge between the Commanders and himself at tea today, a wide gap left over from the war against the Moon Kingdom and the first attack on earth. The Commanders had been forbidden from taking part in the plans to attack the Moon Kingdom, Queen Beryl instead giving that honor to her newly-brainwashed Generals; the Commanders were all of a mind that the utter failure of the Moon Kingdom invasion, compared with the invasions of other nearby Kingdoms, could be placed squarely at the foot of that decision. The invasion of earth had been an even worse disaster, one the Commanders had no part in creating – though they held it against Jedite.

He was a General, one of the men who had been put in charge of the failed invasions. Faced with such an illustrious history of accomplishments, the Commanders had elected (amongst themselves) to find a way to discourage Jedite from participating in most of their planning sessions. Pyrite, the highest-ranking officer in their mission, had potentially opted to encourage Jedite to remove himself from the planning sessions; if he could hold his own tongue on idiotic ideas, they wouldn't break their word to Queen Tanzanite. Rather ingenious, if it worked to their favor. Of course… Beryllium grimaced. It was far more likely that Jedite was too stupid to see the point they were trying to prove to him.

"How much longer do you think it'll take the senshi to arrive," Krisite asked, sounding rather bored with the spectacle the youma was making. The pile of bodies around it had grown quite considerably while they'd talked and most of the people were clearing off of the street. Soon the youma was going to have to move to find new victims which really didn't fit into their plans.

"Hold it right there, youma!" Atop a near building five figures stood, posed fashionably with the sun streaming behind them and adding a halo around their bodies, their voices ringing out in unison. The Commanders, from their hidden vantage point, would be able to watch the ensuing battle without being seen.

Dropping its victim from her hands the youma turned to look up at the senshi, a ripple of the wind that made up her body hinting at the direction she stared. The senshi, sensing an opportunity, leapt off of the building, two of them (Jupiter and Venus, if their reconnaissance on the senshi was to be believed) calling out their attacks as they flew down through the air. The lightning worked spectacularly well against the water of the youma, Venus' attack working to bind the youma into a solid form and make it easier for the other senshi to attack as well.

"That's not such bad form, Beryllium," Krisite commented as the two watched the battle dispassionately. They would make no move to neither rescue the youma nor help it – it wasn't the youma's fault it'd been picked for a suicide mission but on the other hand, they were not going to actually even the creature's odds.

"Maybe this is how they normally fight – or a lucky plan of attack." With a shrug of his shoulders, Beryllium dismissed the issue. "We've got our own orders – watch. If they look like they might be a challenging opponent, it'll make the eventual fall of earth – or whatever Tanzanite's changed our goal to – all the more worthwhile." He brushed a piece of lint from his chest, looking over at the battle still raging on between the sailor senshi of the Moon Kingdom and their youma.

"We won't be able to make a report on SunHeart this time," he observed, a sharp gust of wind whipping his long braid of hair up near his head. "The senshi are handling the youma well enough that I think she's opted to not help them out." Tilting his head towards Krisite, the two shared a sly grin.

"Practical – sounds like someone we'd get along with fairly well." From their observations of the earth senshi, there was hardly a practical one in the lot of them, even including the pragmatic Mercury. Krisite loved to deal with the more practical enemies – this SunHeart was proving to be a likely candidate to play around with later.

"Other than the problem of being on opposing sides, of course." Beryllium's eyes narrowed to angry slits at that comment though, his voice tinged heavily with an unvoiced anger.

"Other than that tiny issue, not a problem at all." Krisite paused for a mere moment, drawing the words out for as long as she could before letting silence fall. "You suspect something about SunHeart, don't you?"

Beryllium gave one stiff nod in the affirmative. "We never really focused on who was breaking up our energy-gathering rings to notice her. I have a suspicion about who she is – one that needs to be researched more." He'd hoped to find SunHeart making some senshi-saving appearance in all honesty, since Krisite would be here to verify his suspicions; that would have to wait for another day, it seemed.

"CRYSTAL POWER…KISS!" Sailor Moon's finishing spell destroyed the youma utterly, the creature screaming as if she was being gutted alive before slowly glowing. Yelling out 'beautiful' as she turned to silvery dust, the enemy faded from the scene leaving the five senshi surrounded by a slowly-stirring crowd.

"I don't think she'll show, Beryllium," Krisite said, turning away from the destroyed youma's remains. Hand on the man's shoulder, she turned her fellow Commander aside as well. "If we remain too long, the senshi will find out we've been here the entire fight." The next step she took was a teleportation, Beryllium looking at the sailor senshi one moment longer before he, too, joined suit.

* * *

They did well on their own that time, Sailor SunHeart observed, the red-haired senshi hidden from sight by the obstructing leaves of the tree. From her vantage point inside the limbs of the tree she could see the alleyways around the bookstore – one of the most unlikely of targets in the whole shopping center – as well as the open street itself. She spotted the two Commanders – that was fairly alarming – and waited for them to come out of hiding once the senshi had defeated the youma.

Eyebrows rising to her hairline, SunHeart watched the two Commanders turn heel on the exhausted senshi and leave. Leave without any remarks or attacks against the Sailor Senshi?

"I told you we shouldn't trust that Sun Heart senshi – she didn't show up, Sailor Moon." The sharp voice carried easily to her ears, SunHeart pursing her lips at the appraisal. "And you saw her bracelets as well as everyone else did – you know what those meant!" Mars would have gone on longer, but SunHeart decided to head-off the forthcoming lecture by jumping down from her tree branch.

"You didn't look like you needed any help, senshi," SunHeart said, standing perfectly still once she'd landed on the ground. "Unless you want me to think that five of you can't handle one little youma the Dark Kingdom sends out…?" Folding her arms at her waist, SunHeart looked at the five girls with a mildly condescending look in her eyes.

Sailor Moon started forward but stopped, drawing back with an obvious glance to SunHeart's wrists. "It's true – you really are working for Galaxia!" Sailor Moon looked up into the other senshi's blue eyes, one hand clutching her brooch and the other her Moon Tier. "I can heal you-"

"Galaxia?" SunHeart hated to sound dumb, but this was the second time she'd run into the Moon senshi, and the second time they made a comment about her bracelets. "What does Sailor Galaxia have to do with part of my uniform, senshi?" Eye flicked from the senshi to Sailor Moon herself, voice firm. "I don't need to be healed of anything."

"Those bracelets – they let you live without a Star Seed!" Sailor Moon seemed to be near the point of tears, SunHeart letting confusion play across her face. "I can heal you and get you back your Star Seed!"

A Star Seed was what allowed a senshi to be reborn, the catalyst for their powers and memories. "I've got my Star Seed, though."

"Take off your bracelets then," the green-themed senshi called out. "Prove it. If you have a Star Seed, you'll live without them – if you don't, you'll-"

"-die," SunHeart interjected smoothly. "I am familiar with the effects of losing your Star Seed, senshi." She needed the senshi to trust her, to a limited extent at least; sighing, SunHeart reached to the hidden clasp on her bracelets, undoing the catch and letting it spring open. Pulling the bracelet off her wrist, SunHeart held it in her hand while she worked on the second one of the pair. The five senshi seemed frozen with anticipation and concern as she pulled the second bracelet free from her wrist, holding them both in her palm. "Do I prove my point," she asked mildly.

"But, but – those look exactly like Galaxia's bracelets," one of the senshi said, SunHeart looking at the orange-themed girl. Venus looked away from her piercing stare, giving Sailor Moon a smile. "I guess we can trust her, Sailor Moon, just like you said."

Snapping the bracelets back around her wrists and pulling her gloves under them to prevent chafing from the gold, SunHeart neatened her appearance. "I'm helping you guys out – not attacking you. What'd you all think, that I was allied with the enemy?" Her lips curled into a grin as she spoke, seeing two of the senshi wince as if she's struck a nerve with them.

"But you can't be correct about who the Enemy is," a new voice announced, SunHeart snapping her attention to the small black cat walking on the wall parallel to the sidewalk. "The Enemy cannot be the Dark Kingdom – we've already defeated the Dark Kingdom. So although your help is…appreciated, you cannot be correct about your suspicions."

For a few seconds all the senshi did was blink, looking at the talking cat. Advisors took every form imaginable, but the last time she could recall the Moon's advisors, they had been humans. "You're a cat, now?" Shaking her head, the senshi dismissed the unimportant matters for a moment. "The enemy is from the Dark Kingdom – I've certainly been fighting them long enough to earn an introduction." And, she added mentally with a wry twist of her lips, an offer of a position within the Kingdom.

"You're mistaken," Luna countered, one paw stamping down on the stone of the sidewalk to emphasize her point.

"What would I have to do to convince you," SunHeart asked dryly, "Get them to tell it to you yourself?" The cat was getting rather annoying; remaining so rigidly insistent that she was Correct and Proper and Accurate in the face of the facts.

Luna leaned backwards, taken back by the senshi's odd sense of humor. "Yes."

"Oh, mothers of mercy protect us," SunHeart muttered quickly and sharply, shaking her head at the obstinate feline. "I've been fighting them around the world but my word isn't good enough; but if one of them decides to announce that they're from the Dark Kingdom, you'll take them at face value? I should've let your senshi get defeated earlier instead of helping them out, if this is how you treat people who offer help and information to you!"

Temper flaring, SunHeart stalked away from the group of senshi, turning back to face them but looking squarely at Luna when she spoke. "They fought well this time – how about I just let you lot deal with the Commanders all by your lonesome little selves?" It was cruel and it was harsh, but SunHeart gave the advisor a mocking smile. "Maybe they'd even hold out for a few minutes, until they got themselves killed, that is! This isn't going to happen the same way their first attack did, senshi; they'll kill you this time, they won't try to convert or kidnap anyone." She stared at them, composed again, her eyes grave and every spark of humor driven from her face. "Unless you are willing to drop your pride and accept help from someone I'll be burying you five before this planet dies." Silently she tried to will the senshi to see she was telling the truth.

Sailor Moon started forward, looking at her four senshi and advisors before stepping until she and SunHeart were a few feet apart. Her easy-to-read eyes were wide with sorrow and compassion mingled with hesitance. "I believe you. I can't speak for the rest of the senshi," Sailor Moon looked back at the four girls behind her, all of whom stood ready to hit SunHeart with their strongest attack if she so much as breathed improperly, "But I believe you."

Letting her head fall towards her shoulder, SunHeart gave Sailor Moon a small smile. "It's a start," she replied. "I suppose time will win the rest of them over," her gaze moved past Sailor Moon to count the attacks (four) aimed at her. "At the moment, I think that is the best I can hope for." Giving Sailor Moon a nod, SunHeart turned around again, ducking to the alley. By the time the senshi had run to the nook of a street side, all that was visible was a banner of brown high on the rooftops.


	4. Chapter Three: Darkening Skies

**Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Sailor SunHeart**

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon - Naoko Takeuchi does - I do own all of the original characters in this fanfiction though.  
Rating: G tp PG  
Author's Note: At long, LONG last the third chapter of SunHeart is done. Humanity seems to be rubbing off on one Commander and what can Pluto possibly mean?

* * *

**-=Chapter Three: Darkening Skies=- **

Flipping her braid over her shoulder, running her hands quickly through her bangs to get them to lie flat, Tora grabbed the ties to her apron and knotted them around her back. Smoothing the apron's front as she walked out of the employee area she headed up towards the front of the store, eyes distracted and inwardly focused. The attack a mere three days ago had been fruitless, the youma having gone slightly insane (according to Beryllium and Krisite) and the senshi easily able to defeat it. It seemed that Jedite hadn't taken the hint though, trying to lobby Pyrite to implement his latest plan of attack; the last she'd seen of that pair Jedite was ranting at Pyrite about how his plan of attack would work _this time _ and Pyrite was sitting still and just letting him rant. Poor woman - Pyrite was running herself ragged and beyond and barely getting to do any of the fin things Tora knew the woman counted as her specialties.

"Tora-" Cassandra's voice drew her wandering attention, head snapping up and then looking around at the sound of her name. Cassandra was staring at her fellow employee intently, an air of somehow weighing her words present in the nuances of her posture. "Are you okay? After that monster appeared, you vanished." Her eyes focused on Tora at that moment, moving subtly to block any possible escape by the girl. There was something in the way Tora's eyes flashed when she asked for her attention, a bit of almost... confusion? It set her senses on edge, sense honed by years - lifetimes - in battles and watching others. Tora was making no move for an exit but she could still read a flight in her posture.

Adjusting her glasses Tora faked a slightly wobbling smile, effecting a rather convincing look of someone just a hair unsettled. "It's been quite a while since anything like that happened here - I panicked. When I saw the monster, I just took off running." Since that was a fairly common reaction to any monster's appearance in the city, she mentally crossed her fingers that her explanation would be enough. She'd vanished in the alley for a reason, one she couldn't exactly _tell _her coworker. Even if it had all been for naught... She gave a mental shake of her head, fingers nervously tucking strands of hair behind her ear and giving Cassie another one of those faked smiles.

"You didn't help me," Cassandra looked as if she was going to say something further and then stopped, shaking her head with a light smile playing across her lips. "I forget, you've been living here for some time, so you're a bit more..." How could she phrase the youma's attack without letting on that she knew more than an average human should?

"Worried by it," Tora supplied with a slight rush of words. "I just hope that the sailor senshi keep us safe." She knew it was what the normal people prayed for but some part of her being shuddered at having to say that phrase.

Smoothing her own apron, Cassandra fixed a warm smile on her face, even if it didn't reach her eyes. "I'm sure they will. They always do, don't they?" Moving quickly she linked her arm through Tora's, dragging them both to the front of the store. "Since you haven't been in the past two days, I haven't had time to fix the displays - let's get those done." With a laugh Cassandra set Tora to moving boxes of new books around, directing her with more smiles than airs of command. For someone who didn't own the store and was just senior to her on staff Cassie gave orders as if the very building was hers to direct, own, and remake and for once Tora didn't fight against the directions. Unlike how she would buck authority outside of the Black Ranks Tora had a secret smile on her lips as she started to move boxes unaware that a tinge of pink was growing on her cheeks.

It was purely human, the physical exhaustion of her body; moving boxes of replacement books around the store front, helping Cassie lift and take the broken bookcase out into the alley for disposal. She tied the apron around her waist as she waved a hand to Cassie, a jaunty "hai, hai," as she dug out the broom from the storage room and swept up glass. The whole interaction was entirely human, an alien experience to her and something warmed at having the chance to experience it. There was something... the words were just beyond her reach, like a cobweb-clad memory, so she was unable to describe the feeling. But it felt warm, uncertain, and precious all at the same time. Her blue eyes were warm when she greeted a wary customer, taking out a box of shards and wood chunks then helping them find the newly-moved fantasy section.

Blue eyes kept skipping over to Cassie, watching the woman, flushing when Cassie caught her looking. _It's time to get back to work..._

* * *

Sitting at a back table, Kyo twisted her teacup with one hand, all of her attention riveted to the front doors. A gentle cling of a tiny bell, a pleasant little chime, heralded new customers to the place. Putting a bright smile on her face Kyo stood up from the table and waved her arm to grab their attention. "Over here! I've got us a table!" A few heads turned to look at Kyo but all they saw was a happy, if a bit rambunctious, college student.

Looking mortified at her friend's behavior, Shouka grabbed Tora by the arm and dragged them quickly towards Kyo's table. "You didn't have to make such a scene," she whispered, Tora grabbing a chair for herself while Shouka slid easily into a chair beside Kyo. "We would have been able to find you soon enough," she added, pale green eyes giving Kyo an accusing look.

Shrugging at her friend's stare Kyo grinned unrepentantly at them both. "What can I say? I wanted to make sure you two didn't get lost. With as many guys here as there are, who knows what devilish, sinister fiend might've waylaid you two." Lifting her teacup to her lips, she paused before taking a sip. "I had to make sure I got you both to myself."

Mouth agape Tora stared at Kyo disbelievingly, nearly sputtering as she tried to speak but couldn't find her voice. Shouka came to her rescue, stealing Kyo's teacup and lifting one elegant brow in the other woman's direction. "You're too much of a tease sometimes, Sana-san." Her eyes hardened, lips curving into a cruel smile that was distinctly out of place with her tender, frail appearance. "Let's get down to business, ladies.

"From my observations of the senshi at the last fight they're slowly developing the skills to defeat our weak youma. There's been no further evolution of the senshi's powers, even with the growing strength of our attacks." Tracing a lazy swirl on the table's surface, Shouka brushed floating strands of her hair from her face. "I suspect that the senshi will not evolve their powers to a new level, at this rate of apparent strength. From previous patterns, they showed new attacks or transformations at the beginning of a conflict; since they haven't done so yet, I think we can assume it's not going to happen." Fingers curled around the stolen teacup, a satisfied expression in her eyes. While Sailor Moon had the capactiy for growth still they believed (from their research into her ginzuishou), the rest of the senshi seemed to be far more limited in their powers and development. It would fit well into their ever-changing plans if they didn't need to account for a sudden boost of power like the senshi had undergone since the Dark Kingdom had been sealed.

"What about the problem Beryllium mentioned?" Kyo looked at Shouka measuringly while leaning into her chair, one arm resting over the back in a careless, haphazard manner. "He'd said that our pesky little interference had arrived in Tokyo, I believe." They'd all barely even been perturbed by the senshi's traveling presence and now, of all places to stop, they stopped and focused their operation on a city with not just one but nine senshi.

Shouka shrugged, sighing at the same time. "When I accompanied Beryllium, that senshi didn't show up. There's a chance she saw the two of us together and remained hidden, or she didn't know of the attack and never arrived. I doubt that Beryllium was mistaken in his report but until we see more of this nuisance it's hard to judge what is really going on." Pausing, Shouka looked steadily at Kyo. "What about the Queen?"

Tora looked at Kyo then, noting the deep grimace and pinched look that suddenly came over her companion. "Since you've not been around at Azabu much, I take it you were there for much of this time...?" At Kyo's nod Tora sighed, mimicking Kyo's pose as she leaned against her chair. "That's not a good sign." Even though they'd promised, as a group, to regularly report to their queen every two earth weeks or so Pyrite had been reporting to Tanzanite close to once every two earth days; reporting that often forced Pyrite to have little of her favored hands-on approach to the current operations, something that always made the woman sharp.

Worrying her lip, Kyo grabbed her teacup and slowly drained the cup. "I've been..." With a sigh she stopped, the two women with her exchanging a concerned glance out of the corners of their eyes.

Standing up stiffly Kyo grabbed her bag, hands clenching so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Without another word to the pair Kyo walked out of the cafe, ducking into a dark alleyway before her form shimmered, was engulfed in flames, and vanished. Looking at each other Shouka dug out a handful of yen, left them held down under Kyo's forgotten teacup, the pair walking out in a more controlled manner. Turning into the same alley that Kyo had walked into first Shouka vanished into a column of twisting water, Tora following suit shortly afterwards, a hail of stones clouding her form.

The marble floor was hard under their boots, Topaz's long hair settling behind her, bangs righted with a shake of her head. Krisite re-clasped the brooch on the upper right of her uniform, another tug at her gloves ensuring they were tucked up under the hem of her sleeves so that if someone from their division walked by she wouldn't be mistakenly out of uniform. Looking about Krisite judged their placement in the ever-changing Dark Kingdom by using the Palace as a frame of reference; she was slightly west now...

"I think Pyrite's gone to her manor," Krisite said eventually, hair slowly stirred by a magical wind. Neither Topaz nor Krisite turned to look at the new arrival, a soft click as another pair of boots made contact with the cold marble. "Beryllium, is Garnet close by?" Her lips turned up at the corners, a smirk making her pale eyes glow. Her ability to identify the other Commanders by their small trademarks helped her know how to best irk a fellow, when they trained together - only Pyrite could stump her. Even though she was obviously a fire-based user Pyrite had so few quirks (or so many that counting them all as a quirk was impossible) that she was an honest challenge.

Clearing his throat Beryllium shifted his stance, his long braid hitting the back of his knees with a soft whish. "Garnet was already on his way to Pyrite's manor when I arrived. I believe his intention was to find out where she kept her wines," his tone of voice hinted at a dry sense of humor. "The grounds are warded though, so Garnet should be cooling his heels outside of the doorway."

Topaz turned to look at Beryllium, a momentarily puzzled expression as she read anger from the lines on his face. "How would you know her place is warded already? Tried to go there earlier, did you?" Topaz kept her tone to a teasing pitch, slowly frowning as Beryllium did nothing but glare in her direction. This...strain on their relationships - it was growing. In ways that Topaz didn't like; it threatened to tear them apart. But even that couldn't account for a narrowed, almost murderous look in Beryllium's eyes.

"Never you mind that," he snarled suddenly, pushing past the two women to walk towards the distant building. Like all things in the Dark Kingdom, size and space fluctuated immensely - the far-off distance which seemed to be miles turned into nothing more than a brisk walk for the three as they headed towards the Gothic-inspired structure.

"I've already tried to get in," Garnet said in lieu of a greeting to the trio. His posture was stiff, a poor imitation of a relaxed lean against a pillar; Krisite and Beryllium looked at the uneasy Commander with a questioning frown, the pair exchanging a glance at Garnet's posture. "Now that we're all here she might let us in." His face turned grim, rich brown eyes looking at the door again as he seemed to wait.

Looking from one Commander to another Krisite pursed her lips before teleporting inside, latching onto Pyrite's magical signature to find her way into the study. Once she landed, the sound muffled in the thick carpeting Pyrite favored, the rest of the Black Rank Commanders followed suit. Studying them from a chair, tucked in a corner of the room beside a fireplace, Pyrite lifted a wineglass to the four in salute.

"Make yourselves at home," she offered. "We need to talk."

Krisite looked at Pyrite as the woman stood up from the chair, setting the wineglass down as she walked by a table. "About what?" Pyrite had an air of grim determination around her as she moved, eyes focused on something beyond her guests.

"The Queen," Pyrite replied, voice clipped and stiff as she turned to face them all.

* * *

Each of the Commanders were seated around the room, silence hanging over the assembly after Pyrite's short, disgusted report. Beryllium idly swirled his glass of wine before drinking the remainder down, setting the empty glass on the table next to his chair. "Are you sure?"

"Without a doubt," Pyrite replied, a hand running through her bangs in marked frustration. "Our attack focus is supposed to shift to the senshi, she wants more involvement with our plans, and the signs are growing more obvious; the markings are spreading even as her decisions become less rational. She's becoming as temperamental as Beryl was, and as stu-" Pyrite broke off suddenly, jaw clenching as beads of sweat rolled down the sides of her face.

The four Commanders looked aside as Pyrite used the back of her hand to mop her brow, again running her fingers through her hair and taking a deep breath. "The Oath is becoming more restrictive as well," she said slowly, forcing the words out. "Things which were once allowed-" here she paused, the meaning clearly known to the five but left unsaid for obvious reasons, "-are shifting, becoming less and less. Pale _versions_ of what we once were allowed." Her pride was thankful that in that moment of extreme weakness her fellows had given her a modicum of privacy but it should never have been needed; that was what worried them all.

"What are our remaining options?" Topaz wove her fingers together and resting her chin on them, elbows propped on the arm rests of her seat.

"Protecting Tanzanite, of course." Garnet's eyes glowed, expression uninviting and as cryptic as his remarks. "It's all we can do, after all. It's all we've got left to do, now that we're in this mess." Shoving himself out of his seat Garnet grabbed Pyrite by the top of her uniform, dragging her out of her seat. "This is your fault, Pyro - your fault."

Eyes narrowing with anger, Pyrite reach a hand to wrap around Garnet's wrist, flames forming directly on her hand until her released her with a stifled cry. "Don't lay the blame on _me_ Garnet. Tanzanite was a big girl," her voice danced in mocking tones, "and made her own choices. Wasn't it you who started that discussion after the Moon attack, joking how nice it'd be if one of us were in charge? Didn't you tell Tanzanite that she'd make a _great_ queen, trying to get into her trousers?"

Hand clenched tightly, time seemed to slow as he drew his arm back and rammed his fist into Pyrite's jaw. "You should have stopped her that day. You were with her, you should have stopped her. We didn't _need _a queen again - and if you'd said one damned word to her, she wouldn't have gone in there."

The force of the punch had sent Pyrite back against the chair, knees nearly buckling and dropping her back down into the seat. Using the back of her hand to wipe the blood from her split lip, Pyrite turned back to face Garnet. "I could bring you up on charges," she informed him coldly, every word clearly enunciated. "Attacking a ranking officer... you'd be stripped of _your rank_, tossed back to the common grunts." Again wiping another trickle of blood from her mouth, Pyrite looked the man over. "Try that again and I'll take care of your punishment myself. Stand down, Garnet."

A tense silence held until Garnet, wiping every trace of emotion from his face with practice, sketched a rough sort of half-bow. "My apologies, Commander Pyrite - I allowed emotions to rule my temper." His jaw was clenched tight, his words stilted and rough; there wasn't a Commander present who believed for even a moment that Garnet meant his apology in truth but it still had been offered.

"Apology accepted, see that it doesn't happen again." Her posture shifted, relaxing, the rest of the Commanders taking their cues from her and letting the tension drain from their forms; the Commanders had rarely had a problem within their numbers before Tanzanite had risen to the ranks of Queen but her change in status had slowly been unbalancing the steady trust, cooperation, and dedication the Black Ranks had given to each other. They still looked to Pyrite for leadership but their old second was now calling the shots; it had sounded like a good idea, initially, but as Pyrite once quipped, the execution was leaving a taste in their mouths.

_I hate to stand on formality...but appearances have to be kept..._ "Dismissed - return to earth and set up the next attack. Leave that idiot out if it and let's increase the casualties we cause." Her words carried the bark of command and an edge to them, the weight of the ever-pressing Oath hinting just how much their Queen approved of the plan. Attack and attack, throwing their forces around carelessly? She'd already tried to have a talk with Tanzanite about it but that had gone as well as she'd expected. Which meant, Pyrite recalling, that it ended with the first time Tanzanite had _dared_ to raise her hand (and magic) against her old friend. That had smarted in more ways than one though at least that audience had been in the Queen's Room behind the throne.

Each of the officers tendered Pyrite a salute before they vanished; Beryllium, Topaz, and Krisite left until the only ones that remained in the room were Pyrite and Garnet. "I suspect you have something further to discuss with me, Garnet," Pyrite said darkly, eyes narrowed with suspicions.

Clearing his throat Garnet slowly pulled his gloves off, tucking them in his belt. "Set up wards, Pyrite - this needs to be private."

There was a flash of fire around the manor, the ground scorching in a burst of flames that faded into the ever-present darkness of the kingdom.

Nothing entered the manor until the flames flashed again, hours later.

* * *

"Moving right along, senshi," Usagi interjected, breaking up the fifth argument about Sun Heart that had happened since Usagi had called the meeting to order, "it's fact time. Ami-chan, what did we learn last battle?" While she asked her blue-haired friend she batted long bangs from her eyes, re-adjusting the bun of her ponytail and tightening it. The senshi looked at their leader who seemed disturbed by something, though none of them knew what was putting the strained look in their princess' eyes.

Pulling out her computer again Ami tapped on the keyboard, the mini computer beeping as it processed her commands. "Well, the little demonstration of her taking off her bracelets was, according to my readings, useless. When I analyzed the power from them it was enough that taking them off for a short period of time - like Galaxia's bracelets - would not be effective. In fact I suspect that there co-" The puzzle had clearly been taking a bit of a toll on the girl, her lip worried and looking just a hair ragged.

"Uh, Ami...?" Usagi waited until she had the girl's attention then she sighed as Rei opened her mouth, the large intake of breath enough warning for Minako to clamp a hand over the priestess' mouth. "About the enemy?" Sometimes, Usagi reflected silently, the senshi were more of a handful than she was; she might throw tempers but when Rei found a subject she wanted to go off on she _never_ shut up... Rei's current favorite subject, since she'd stopped filching her manga during meetings, was Sun Heart. And the supposed "Dark Kingdom" that Luna refused to believe in. Of course the sheer impossibility of the Dark Kingdom having survived her ginzuishou's purification led credence (and what would Ami think of her knowing what that word meant?) to Luna's belief that Sun Heart was lying to them a-

"Usagi?" Minako was right in front of her fellow blonde, dark blue eyes peering into the fogged-with-thought ones of her Princess.

"AH!" Usagi scrambled back a few steps in (even for her) record time, giving the other blonde a glare as she regained her composure. "Minako! I was thinking!"

It was a sign from above that their respect for her as a leader had grown because the only derisive sound came from a tiny snort from Rei and even that earned the black-haired girl a stern look from Luna. She didn't say anything else though and that left a pregnant pause in the room before Usagi (who looked surprised at the lack of an outburst from the expected corner) regained her poise.

Straightening her hair and re-twisting one of her buns Usagi sat down regally on the cushion vacated by Luna, the cat jumping onto the low table. "All right, so it's a bit odd. But hear me out - my memories of the first battles we fought are very vague." Uneasiness flitted into her eyes and hovered just around the edges as she continued. "Actually my memories of a lot of that year are a bit vague, especially around the end. Luna I remember using the ginzuishou and shattering it in the battle against Beryl but is it possible that I didn't destroy the Dark Kingdom?" It had begun to nag at the back of her mind as soon as Sun Heart had said the Dark Kingdom was back. If she'd destroyed it wouldn't she have destroyed her friends too? And Mamoru, he was trapped inside of Beryl's throne room - if she'd destroyed the Kingdom how had he been returned to life? It didn't add up convincingly. "Maybe, instead of destroying I did what Serenity had done?" She chewed a hangnail as she talked, looking at the adviser cat as she posed that question.

"But Usagi," Luna began, her tail flicking to show that she was debating her words carefully, "If that was the case then the seal wouldn't have broken so soon. Queen Serenity, your mother on the Moon, sealed the Dark Kingdom for a thousand years. It hasn't even been five yet, how could the seal break so easily?" Half-remembered memories tugged at Usagi's mind - those same repeating memories that had driven her to find her prince, that had driven Endymion, Mamoru, to hunt down the mysterious Princess. It was gone in a flash and Usagi felt... bereft, for the first time, trying to pull them back to her conscious mind. She knew there was something important in those memories of the Silver Millennium that would be useful now but it always faded away before she could grasp it leaving Usagi frustrated; those memories were _hers_ as much as they were the Princess'.

"I think," Minako began slowly, looking from cat to Princess, "that we need more information, yet again. If the Dark Kingdom _is_ back how does it fit? And how does Sun Heart know that in the first place? Why didn't she show up earlier? Why has she picked her appearances now that we know she's there?" Sun Heart's vanishing act reminded her of the Starlights except she wasn't as flashy. Maybe, like them - and like the Outers, before they found out Usagi's true history - she had another mission and this was just overlap?

"If we want more information," Ami began, "then we need to have her stay long enough to answer more questions. I believe our hostility to her," Ami's eyes slid meaningfully to Rei, the fire-tempered priestess pursing her lips and not looking the least bit repentant, "may cause us some problems. She might not be forthcoming to us now." She let her words sink in, waiting for the inevitable confusion from Usagi and looking at her princess in mild shock when she caught her simply nodding agreement.

"Well then it looks like I'll talk to her. Alone." She held up a hand as her four friends (not to mention cat) started to all talk, trying to drown her words out with protests. "I didn't try to hurt her, out of everyone here. I think if any of us have a shot at getting her to tell us what's going on I have it." _And besides,_ she thought, _I can ask her questions that Luna seems unable - or unwilling - to answer. She might know why the seal broke._ Something was telling her heart that Sun Heart knew what was going on and how it happened, the little nagging sense she attributed to her crystal. It was that same kind of feeling when she knew she could heal someone with it, a certainty that it was the correct thing (and maybe the only thing) she could do.

It was also a feeling that Usagi had found, time and time again, absolutely impossible to relate to her senshi. She exchanged a look with Luna, the black cat eventually bowing her head to her princess' will.

"Girls, let's let Usagi do what she thinks is best." Luna was as torn as the rest of the senshi but this was an important step, one she didn't want to trample over with objections. And she would follow Usagi herself, just to make sure that Sun Heart didn't try anything on the sly. "When, Usagi?"

Usagi's blue eyes lost their sharp focus as she mulled it over, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know. The next time we see her, I guess? It's not like we know who she is and can just find her home or apartment." She huffed, folding her arms and looking pleased. Her senshi were listening to her, she'd come up with a plan, and the coming battles didn't seem nearly so dreadful anymore.

"Now then," Artemis said while giving Minako a playful bat of his tail as he walked past , "How about some tea?"

* * *

Streetlamps bathed the park in a warm, night-time glow; the air smelled like a curious mix of city and forest, wet earth and too many people too close to nature. The park was deserted after hours so the gathered group was undisturbed which suited the five fine - it meant no one would accidentally stumble in on their discussion.

Around the five senshi silence stretched uncomfortably, the soft city sounds somehow diminished in the tense atmosphere that encompassed the group. Weapons were drawn defensively, a soft glow of magic as each senshi's aura flared, a bright crackle of shifting reds and yellows as in the center a single senshi lit by fire waited. The four had encirlced the fire-wielding warrior who seemed to regard this as some sort of joke if her loose stance was anything to go by. Silence stretched and then snapped as one broke it.

"Give us your name, intruder," a senshi in a blue and yellow fuku spat, tone cold and unpleasant, sword held across her chest in an aggressive position. Wind whipped around her, teasing sandy blonde hair like sylphs were swimming in the strands, a rich gold aura surrounding the senshi of wind and speed.

The night, SunHeart reflected, had begun quite badly; first she'd actually been _hit_ by one of the youma a Commander had set loose on the city, the wound a cut along her ribs which she was thankful that the darkness obscured. While setting the creature afire (since the Moon senshi were quiet useless at answering a telepathic summons, not that she had the ability, but still she had tried) and then using a sharp edge of the whip's hilt to end its life, she'd found herself with company. The company had beautiful weapons, which she admired in a detached way, and such determination but absolutely no manners...

Spinning her whip in a sudden circle she created a contained ball of fire to ward off the planet-shaped burst of energy that one of the four had thrown at her. It didn't do to let her attention wander in the middle of a confrontation, she reminded herself sternly, refocusing her concentration on the imminent battle. They'd helpfully posed with their pretty speeches when they'd caught up with her so she knew their names (even if their attacks didn't contain them), deflecting Neptune's attack into a park bench; the bench exploded in a surge of water which lost momentum as it faded into the trees behind the bench. "That wasn't nice," she commented softly, the tone the same kind she'd use to remark on a front of dark clouds heading her way.

"Your name," the blonde ground out again, watching as the red-headed senshi lifted an imperious brow and then circled, keeping her whip out and at the ready.

"Sailor SunHeart," she replied at last, her tone somewhere between amused and bored, seeming to flit between the two. "Didn't your Princess tell you that already, Sailor Uranus?" Now she was simply teasing them, wondering how a group of senshi could have not known of her presence in the city. She'd had two official meetings with the leader of the White Moon senshi already - any smart leader knew that the best way to help prepare was to spread your intelligence around so that everyone had the same information. Sailor Moon had seemed... well,m smart enough to have figured that out, at least.

"Stay away from the Princess," Saturn commanded softly, her glaive tucked easily under one arm belying the weight of the weapon. The Starlights had been a harsh lesson to them all as had Galaxia; the Outers trusted each other again but outsiders, no matter who they were, would never be trusted so quickly again. And Sun Heart's appearance, the gold bracelets flashing in the fire of the enemy's own weapon, had caught all of their attention. "You will never take her light - we, the Outer senshi, will protect the Princess from intruders."

Her words carried a weight of conviction that SunHeart admired in one so apparently young, head tilting back as she seemed to take Saturn's warning in. Warning or not though she'd already decided that the White Moon senshi fit into her plans. Alone she couldn't take on the Dark Kingdom, not if she wanted to win (and more importantly survive the conflict). Alone she couldn't stand up against the budding strength of Chaos that she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, had awoken inside the White Moon's old foe. Alone she would die trying to achieve her aim and death wasn't in her plans. With the Dark Kingdom having at last moved the fight to the streets of Tokyo she could muster up a source of help which had fought the enemy before. "I'm not here to take anything from your Princess - or from you," she added with a shrug, moving so that she could keep the four senshi in her sights. "And I'm not an intruder," she bit out, folding her arms at her waist while the fire of her whip flared with suppressed anger.

The butt of a staff thudded against the ground, drawing her attention away from the aggressive Uranus and towards the dark and soft-spoken Pluto. "While that is true," she said at last, her three companions turning to stare at the senshi in shock, "you cannot say that you belong here."

"Pluto," Neptune said when the older woman didn't continue, mirror held close to her chest, "What exactly do you mean?" She looked at Sun Heart carefully, wariness keeping her close to her lover.

"It's simple, isn't it, Sailor SunHeart?" Pluto had her entire attention focused on the senshi in the midst, staff glowing a faint magenta as she watched the woman extinguish the flames of her whip and return the spike to her headpiece. "You do indeed hail from the sun of this system so you are not an intruder. But you do not belong." Her words were strong and edged with anger that seemed out of place suddenly. "You are an anomaly.

"You," she pointed a gloved finger at the senshi, her voice carrying a weight as she tipped her Orb towards the senshi's direction as she repeated the word, "are out of your place in Time."


	5. Chapter Four: Forgotten Past

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Sailor SunHeart

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon - Naoko Takeuchi does - I do own all of the original characters in this fanfiction though.  
Rating: PG13 at most.  
Author's Note: Sorry that I am slow with updates but, uh, look, chaper!

* * *

**-=Chapter Four: Forgotten History! The Sun's Mysterious Past=-**

_"You are out of your place in Time."_

The silence that surrounded Pluto's pronouncement was as heavy as a death knell's tolling. The air itself seemed to stop, every breath held in the chest against exhaling as if something would shatter, the wind gone as even Uranus seemed unable to speak. The world fell away from Pluto and SunHeart, the two simply staring at each other as if they were the sum of existence, the only things in the park, in Japan, or on earth. They stared at each other with eyes cloaked with shadows and secrets; Pluto tried to understand this mystery before her, SunHeart tried to judge how damaging Pluto's words were. Neither moved, neither spoke, time only existing as they waited for each other to decide - the silence dragging on it had to be broken; Uranus moved forward, a twig snapping under the flat of her boot. It rang out in the clearing and every senshi seemed to unfreeze then, SunHeart drawing her arms up into a defensive stance while Pluto's staff glowed menacingly once more. "Pluto," Uranus forced the senshi of Time's attention back to this plane with her words, "What can you possibly mean?""What she means," SunHeart interrupted, her voice equal parts mocking and hesitant, not liking the fact that she had to explain anything to senshi she wanted to get help from, "is the time of the Sun ended - long ago. Long ago, when the Moon and the Sun were both alive, when you were wrapped up in swaddling clothes and held to your first mother's breast to suckle, the Sun's time ended." Her blue eyes met Pluto's startled ones, lips twisting up into a cold smirk. "I wasn't reborn."

Three simple words.

Senshi were always reborn when they died, their souls sent to the cauldron. Uranus was reborn, Saturn was reborn, Neptune was reborn. Their beloved Princess, their sole reason for existing, was reborn. Senshi lived, fought, died, and were reborn to continue their eternal duties. Three words shook up everything Pluto knew - or thought she had known - about the demise of the solar kingdom, ripped it apart and jumped on the broken pieces.

Pluto stared at SunHeart in utter shock now, looking at - yes, it had to be her. The red hair, the blue eyes - it struck her, suddenly, how much like her royal-self SunHeart looked as the memories assaulted the senshi of Time's mind like a surging river. The similarities of a senshi to their past self always were present but it was something that was clouded from memory, usually to protect the senshi. And in the case of a Princess and Heir of a Kingdom, to protect their life; look at the problems the Dark Kingdom had gone through to get at the ginzuishou when Serenity was reborn and awakened a handful of years ago. And just like the Moon, the Sun had its own power-

"It's... impossible..." she choked out, hand gripping the staff tightly against the memories, the butt of it dug into the ground to transform it, momentarily, into an anchor. "Helios...you, you vanished. _Died_. You must have. Your Kingdom crumbled under their assault..." The other Outers were momentarily confused at the name - Small Lady had told Saturn of the Guardian of Elysion, Helios, and this surely wasn't _him_. A vague memory floated up in the maelstrom that the names had caused problems before, too, trickery and mix-ups between the kingdoms. Something teased at the edge of Uranus' mind but that flitted away before she could grasp it.

If the Princess, the Heir, died then the Kingdom fell. With no Heir to take up the Throne after the King's death the Sun Kingdom had broken apart like a, air-riddled rock thrown against the wall. The Princess had to have been dead for that to have happened, she must have been dead. It was impossible any other way but her words - she hadn't been reborn - meant that something else entirely had happened. Against all reason Pluto believed SunHeart when she said she hadn't been reborn. What had happened in the past? Even as some memories from that era surfaced Pluto knew that most of them were lost or hidden, tucked away as remnants of a bygone era. Pluto also knew that the secrets of the Sun were just as well hidden but they were held in the hands of its Heir. An Heir who somehow, against all reason and precedence, stood before them.

Three years old and already precocious Helios toddled up to the crib in which her baby sister had been placed, wide blue eyes looking somber as she peered down at her sister. There were a few curls of pale blonde hair on her head and, although she was asleep, Helios had overheard that the little princess had blue eyes like her. A sister - a little baby sister she could take care of! And maybe now everyone would stop whispering when they didn't know she was nearby. She was almost four - she was old enough to guess they were talking about her, hushing up as she came near and whispering once she was past earshot.

She wasn't stupid, after all. There'd been a spot on their beloved Sun when she was born, she heard. The Sun was a superstitious Kingdom so when the omen of a spot on her birth was heard - well, people were scared. Her mum had always told her the truth too, especially when she'd first seen her mum getting rounder and asked. She'd said that she was having a sister for her, to stop the rumors. And when her little sister was born the sun-in-glory that had been on her brow (which she tried to rub off once, thinking she had been playing in the sand too long) had vanished, leaving a little tiny Sun. Long red hair spilled over her shoulder and tickled her cheek, nose almost twitching as she looked at her baby sister.

Her baby sister had the Sun's Heir mark. Helios might not know what 'Heir' really meant but she knew the different family marks. Hers, a little sun, meant she was a Princess. Which meant she had a team of nurses, a play room she would hopefully be able to share with her sister, and a bevy of tutors. She always had someone telling her to put on a frock, comb her hair, and to not run through the hallways but walk sedately (which she guessed meant slower - she never listened to that command). Her sister's, the sun-in-glory which sparkled and shone, meant she'd have even more. More tutors, the ones that had been her tutors until her baby sister's birth, would start teaching her stuff from the moment she could really pay attention.

Helios hoped little baby Helia would have time, between everything else, to play though. She already knew all the best hiding places across the Palace's nursery wing so when she could get her sister to play with her they could avoid tutors together and have fun. A little hand reached down, tipping up to the top of her toes as she awkwardly patted Princess Helia's cheek, the baby cooing in her sleep and Helios giving a wide, happy smile to the babe. She was really looking forward to being the elder sister, giving Helia tips and teaching her how to look at an adult and get out of any punishment.

Years went by in their slow pace, Helios growing up to be a rambunctious Princess who shunned dresses and finally came up with a formal enough pants ensemble that she attended functions wearing it. There'd been a very brief period during the terrible time she was five when, as a way of rebelling against dresses, she'd snuck into the Guardsmen's quartermaster's stocks and had been found in a Royal Palace uniform trying to wrestle a sword taller than she was. It beat Helia's attempt to copy her, a few years later, when the normally well-behaved Princess suddenly declared dresses were "stupid" and tried to go without dresses entirely. But Helia was missing some of Helios' spunk so had instead simply tried to steal her sister's clothes. The princesses nurses traded stories about their charges as often as the princesses themselves did, from the easiest ways to get Helia to betray their hidden location when the pair decided to skip lessons (Helios always took the blame for instigating it - Helios tended to take all the blame for any time the pair stepped out of line even when Helia was obviously the one who'd started it. The habit was considered endearing though so the nurses just gave a smile, a chuckle, and the two skipped out of punishments) to the ways which the often hellion Helios could be tamed to obey her instructors long enough to complete a lesson.

The pair, for all of the whispered snubs that followed the elder princess, were fast friends. Helia defended her elder sister to the other children at Court when the subject came up with Helia insisting that Helios, for all of her pants-wearing oddity, would make a better Heir. They were loyal to each other in ways that no one in the Kingdom expected but it was a loyalty which brightened the Court and the Palace to hear and see it demonstrated. The people had worried that the birth of the younger Heir would make the elder princess bitter but Helios laughed it off. The Kingdom favored the honey-haired Princess because every omen at her birth had been positive. Helios, when asked, just seemed confused that anyone would think she wanted to be the Heir.

Their mother, Lady of the Sun and her most Royal Majesty Queen Lianda just smiled at her girls, giving each of them a hug and a pat on the head. "I'm told by your tutors that you ran off again," she informed the pair with a smile, kneeling down so that the girls could give her a hug. For all her regal bearing Lianda remembered the exasperation of her tutors and how her head nurse, a wonderfully dotting nana she'd called lady Ruler for three years running, had said she hoped her own children were just as unruly. "Now I'm supposed to give you a lecture about regal bearing and manners and how you're supposed to behave well enough to mind your lessons but," Lianda's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, forehead resting against her daughter's and a mass of hair draping the lot of them to hide them from the world, "I always did it too. I'll let your father give you the lecture instead." The girls groaned with cries of "Mama!" at that, knowing that the King would give a long lecture they'd have to fidget through. They loved their father but he could prattle on for ages and turn even a wonderfully exciting battle into a droll exercise in history.

"Maybe next time," she stood up, smoothing her dress with an impish grin on her face, "you'll mind your lessons?" The triumph of the two bowing their heads, a chorus of "yes Mother," from them (they had such beautiful voices), was a sweeter victory than any her nana got from her lips. At eight and five respectively the girls were a curious mix of her, their father, and their own selves with the red-headed Helios more straightforward in a manner that made the Court wince. Helia was escorted everywhere by her sister and they often acted alike but Helia's own personality - a soft, sweet demeanor that would fit in just as well at the Moon's Court as it did at the Sun's - was asserting itself.

Their teen years, the Queen mused, would be hell.

Maybe she should visit her Royal Cousin when they hit puberty.

* * *

"PRINCESS!"

The shout rang out across the courtyard and two fleeing girls winced and stopped, slippers scuffing along the floor. One girl fidgeted more, looking guilty and lips pursed in defiance. The other girl folded her arms at her waist and tilted her head back, rebellion in every part of her posture. "Which one," Helios asked, elbowing her sister to stop her from trying to flee now that they'd been caught. Besides, she looked around with an amused glance, the five Palace Guards had caught up with them and the head Guard of the Palace, her two swords clinking against her back, was walking up to them.

Must have been Lorana who'd actually shouted, then, as the Guardsman rolled her eyes at the pair's stances. Helios was her usual self - every time she got caught doing something wrong she just pulled a regal bearing and wore it like a cloak. Where this bearing was during Court appearance was anyone's guess since, when she wanted to, she acted with the righteous fury that her mother had and comported herself flawlessly. If she didn't know the Princess better she'd have thought it was out drinking but Helios was nothing if not (to a large extent) rule-abiding, lessons notwithstanding. Helia at her left was like any guilty thirteen year old looking for a way out, holding her place next to her sister out of habit. And these were what she had to work with? What she had to guard? It was enough to make her weep for the future of the Sun. "Both of you," she finally answered after watching Helia fidget and Helios' tempter start to rise.

"What do you want," Helios answered warily, rocking on her heels like she was starting to consider her sister's idea of running away. "We were just-"

"Skipping out on lessons with your senshi," the Guard interjected smoothly, hand falling to one of her sword hilts in a mild threat. She would never actually draw her swords on the pair but sometimes they needed to be reminded that she was, in fact, armed.

"They're not _my_ senshi," Helios returned angrily, jaw jutting out in blatant aggravation now. Helia stood up straighter while laying a pacifying hand on her sister's arm with a sigh.

"Actually Princess they still are _your_ senshi," the woman replied, pinching the bridge of her nose. Helios had managed to hit upon the notion that since she wasn't the Heir the senshi of the Sun, and training with them, were outside of her required duties. Lorana wasn't _quite_ sure what she actually considered her "duties" now that she'd reached the age of sixteen but she had her suspicions they equated to "help my sister with whatever she wants" and "keep the floosie from bothering my sister" and perhaps a bit of mayhem. Tight security on the Palace somehow meant nothing when it came to keeping track of Helios who could vanish from notice - and subsequently the Palace grounds - at the drop of a hat for hours on end. It'd have been worrying to the head of the Palace's security if Helios' loyalty to her sister was questionable but since nothing ever happened, and Helios returned whenever her sister called for her, she kept her lips pressed tight on the former heir's vanishing acts.

She had a feeling that even if she tried to keep Helios' feet nailed to the Palace she'd slip out anyways. Lorana had enough pointless losing battles that she fought on a daily basis - she didn't need to add another to her retinue.

"They don't want to work with me anyways, Lorana," Helios offered, shifting her weight and rocking one heel back.

"I didn't think they'd spent enough time in your company to know you that well," the woman retorted with a raised brow. Lorana ignored the way Helios' mouth dropped open in shock and the growing storm Helia's eyes were promising - she could get away with an attitude like this one. She held up a hand to forestall the pair's rebukes. "Princess Helia - you know you need to work with your guards in preparation for the Royal Ball and the ceremonies. Princess Helios - you shouldn't encourage or drag your sister away from her lessons. If you want to traipse around the city unescorted you seem skilled enough to do it on your own." She noticed the flash in Helios' eyes after her words and the way the elder girl looked away guiltily. _Ah-ha, so that is what you were going to be doing! _The tiny bit of guilt would keep the two in line as well as real threats possibly.

Maybe this time it'd be enough.

With Helios, at least, one could never be certain.

* * *

Shifting her weight uneasily Lorana let a hand drop to the hilts of her swords. An ill wind blew through the gardens bringing with it a sense of unease, a chill of foreboding which hung around her and bore down on her shoulders like a mantle. The day was bright and warm, the moon's light beaming down like a gentle smile and yet- something was stirring. She sniffed, almost thinking it was a palpable scent that she could catch on the wind - but that was preposterous. The only odor which came to her attention was the distinct reek of... a tavern?

Red hair, bright blue eyes - and garb which would make her mother shriek if she caught it. Luckily for the errant Helios her lady-mother was occupied with arranging a marriage for her dear sister so was unlikely to catch her eldest in a low-cut bodice, coarse shirt, and skirts hiked high enough to show the fit leggings she wore underneath. The scent of ale hung around her like a poor man's perfume but when she met the guardswoman's eyes they were hard, bright - but clear. The breath she'd been holding was released - at least the princess hadn't been gallivanting around the city drunk.

"What do you think you were doing," she challenged, once the teenager had entered the Palace's grounds and approached her. "Unescorted, dressed like a common tavern worker - what would your mother say if she saw you now?" Lorana's voice was hard, biting, but for once Helios' eyes didn't flinch and her expression, a defiant set of lips and brow that Lorana had seen before; Helios seemed... different, as Lorana examined her, her trained eyes spotting red knuckles and chipped nails.

"If Mother saw me," Helios replied, hands tugging the string holding her tunic closed near her neck, "she wouldn't recognize me. And even if she did she has Helia - I don't go to Court, I didn't get fostered out. Mother might even have a few tips on getting my look more real but now that I've been in the city I think I can manage it myself." Her lips turned up into a smile, head tilted back as she looked up at the royal guard. She didn't seem the least bit intimidated by Lorana's double swords, her dagger, her position - none of it seemed to phase the princess. "I've been going to the city for weeks, Lorana - and nothing's happened."

Quick as a viper Lorana grabbed Helios' wrist, and yanked her hand out, holding up the red, darkening knuckles. Her brow lifted at the red trapped under her nails and her expression held every unspoken question. Helios knew better than to try and break her grip and gave a one-armed shrug, her innocent expression trying - and failing - to lessen the triumph that shone in her eyes. "One of the men was a bit drunk and tried to take... liberties." Lorana's hand tightening in reflexive shock. "I showed him it wasn't a good idea to try that on me." She was cocky then, so sure of her self - and Lorana had _no_ idea where she'd learned the low skill of fist fighting. She knew that Helios had learned a rather remarkable assortment of skills, beyond the normal dancing and tea making arts that princesses were taught, but she never had really though the teen had learned to _fight_ anything. Aside from the magical training with the Sun's senshi, Helios never seemed remarkably adept with the more physical side of combat.

With the woman distracted Helios gave her hand a twist and a yank, smoothing her skirts and starting to pull out the lacing of her bodice, taking a tiny step back. "Helia's the proper princess, remember?" Her voice was teasing, as light-hearted as she ever was; she left the bodice half tied to keep the voluminous shirt under control but dropped the skirt and stepped out of it. "Once I stopped causing trouble around the grounds here I explored the city - and even you have to have noticed that things have been running smoothly around here." Helios' eyes dropped and her mouth tightened with a hint of anger, grabbing the discarded skirt rather violently and folding it up. "Everything runs better around here when I take leave - no whispers, no disgruntled couriers, no rumors, no ministers suggesting I'm going to cause havoc." Blue eyes looked up at Lorana and saw a guilty agreement with her words.

"I thought so," she muttered, walking past the stunned woman.

Lorana remembered the conversation every night for five years, always asking one rhetorical question: if she had disagreed with the princess then would that have stopped Helios from disappearing? It took the Palace and Royal Family an entire two days to realize that Helios hadn't just gone off on a little trip and by the time they started looking for her in the city they could find no trace of her passage left. The eldest princess, second in line for the throne, was gone. The Court was informed that due to an accident Helios had died.

* * *

Three years after the mysterious death of Helios life in the kingdom had moved on. Helia, two months from her nuptials with her beloved prince, had finally tossed aside the funk that she had sunken in to with her sister's death - for two years the Court had watched Helia shrink under her grief, convinced that she could have done something, said something - or found her before she'd truly vanished. For the Court, the entire kingdom mourned for a year. The royal family, it was remarked more than once, seemed to cling to their grief. Whispers around the kingdom said that the common folk and most of the nobles were happy with the troublesome princess' death - the omens obviously were wrong. She didn't bring terror and destruction to her kingdom but instead a grief that nearly crushed her younger sister.

Helia laughingly dismissed her guards, sending her senshi away with a promise that if anything in the woods even looked at her with an offensively cocked ear she would summon them. Two months before marriage, she declared, meant that she wanted to keep the private times when she snuck away riding alive. She told her guards where she would ride, how long she would be gone - and then begged so tearfully that even strict Lorana let the princess mount and ride off unescorted. It was so rare, they all decided, for Helia to be this happy - they would give her a few hours away.

Head and body bent against the back of her horse's neck, Helia rode like a woman born to the saddle, directing her mare deep into the woods for over an hour. Expertly she weaved her way deep into the woods until the trees broke to a wide, secluded clearing. There was a great tree towering in the center of the expansive circle of grass and in its shadow a stump that, if the person sitting on it was to be believed, was an excellent chair. Her horse slowed as she approached the sitting figure, Helia sliding off the saddle and tossing the reins over her mount's back.

Bright blue eyes were crinkled with a smile, a few strands of red hair slipping out from under her cap, managing to look incredibly non-descript in loose trousers, slippers, and a loose shirt. Jumping off the stump the person ran forward, wrapping strong arms around the still-younger woman. "You look good, sister," Helios teased, pulling back to stare eye-to-eye with her sibling. "None of that depressed air! Good, I had worried that maybe you weren't happy with the Prince Mother is marrying you off to but you seem to be well."

Helia felt an odd sort of presence clinging to her sister now as she listened to her babble on, answering every question about her beloved Prince with a smile and a laugh but otherwise just listening, taking in the rare sight she had before her. The last time Helios had sent word that she would be in the city had been six months ago and she'd only seen her older sister three times since she'd left, including this surprise visit. Wherever it was Helios had gone to she didn't seem inclined to leave all that often but as Helia drank in her fill of the sight of her sister, she knew that she was _happy_ in whatever place she'd found. Just as Helia's life was finally heading towards a way to give her happiness, Helios seemed to have found a place minus the whispers and rumors - she had no shadows under her eyes and she carried herself as confidently as any queen. The sight warmed her little sister's heart, remembering the days leading up to her disappearance.

"And you, Helios - you look good as well." Her eyes narrowed, sticking her tongue out at her sib who had broken off her questions for a peal of laughter. "If a bit thinner! Are you eating enough?" Her arms folded and she tapped her foot in the grass, waiting for a reply.

"I'm fine, sister-mine," Helios reached out and ruffled Helia's hair, laughing, "I've just been learning a lot - you know how I get, a bit focused. I'll do better next time, sister-mine, I promise - once my study is done I have a long break scheduled." Helia pursed her lips, looking like she wanted to ask for more information but the questions never came - even though Helios knew that her sister wanted to know where she had gone to. If she was unlucky the rumor-mill they called a Court would soon start to talk about it... Ah well, she'd deal with that when the time came.

The warm light kept the clearing lit while they chatted, time passing while they managed to catch up the events of the past six months in their hidden little grove. Nothing seemed to disturb them while they talked and then, hiking her skirts up, Helia reluctantly looked back towards the woods. She could feel in her bones that their time today was up again - her mare had meandered back to her side, nose butting her in the back like a living alarm, tail swishing to bat away gnats while she silently instructed her human to mount up again. With a heave, and a helping hand from Helios, Helia climbed back into the saddle, gently rounding her mare back to look at her sister. "Will you ride back at least part of the way with me," she begged, that odd feeling returning - a heaviness in her heart, perhaps?

Helios seemed to have felt something - instead of arguing about it, going on how she might be seen, she put two fingers in her mouth and whistled. A black stallion, dappled with dark brown and a white blaze star down his nose lumbered out of the woods and came up, standing still for her to mount like a well-trained warsteed. Using reins she walked her stallion to her sister's side, giving her a sunny smile as the two began to set off again. They continued to talk though the tension seemed to rise, conversation slowly straining until the two sisters just rode in companionable silence, neither of them going over a walk to draw the day out just a little bit longer. There was a shout - from Helios - when Helia's mare startled, rearing back suddenly; the stallion tried to calm the mare down with a sharp whicker but the mare danced, skittish, away from a shadow only she could see. Helia tried desperately to calm her down and then, when she started to buck, Helios unable to get closer as the mare lashed out with hooves, Helia tried to hang on for dear life. Her seat slid, she lost her grip on the reins, and she flew off the mare's back - Helios threw herself from her saddle but fell short, far too short. Helia's neck hit a rock and then her sweet mare's hooves kicked her skull and she didn't move.

A sad procession made its way into the city though, with a wrapped cloak hiding her bundle, few gave the rider a second glance. The Palace guard recognized the princess' mare as the stranger rode up and tried to draw close but the rider - a woman, they could finally see, demanded that they bring her the head of the Palace's guard. Fearing the strange rider, fearful of why this rider had their princess' mare, a runner did what she asked. Lorana hand a hand resting on the hilt of her top sword as she approached, eyes taking in every detail, every nuance. They widened when she saw the rider's eyes but every possible word fled from her tongue when the rider gently unwrapped her cloak once Lorana was near enough. At first she thought that Helia, when she ran forward to the the princess from the rider's arms, was sleeping - her body was still warm and her eyes were closed. But then she smelled it, the air becoming thick with copper and a shout - for a healer, for the Queen and King - tore from her throat. The sudden rush of confusion, guards confused where to go first until she turned and _showed_ them their urgency and she felt the rider draw back.

"Her mare spooked," the rider whispered brokenly, Lorana turning back once a healer had come and taken the princess from her arms.

"Don't leave again," she tried to say more but her throat choked as the healer cried - that never meant anything good. She turned her back to ask what had happened and heard the hooves, heard the rider, who she guessed was Helios, leave.

The King and Queen mourned again, that night. The people mourned too, for they loved Helia, and her sudden death was a blow to a place that had already lost one princess. Lorana guarded the funeral and public viewing, hoping to see the rider again, to ask what had happened, to ask _why_ she was there, why Helia was meeting her. The one time she thought she spied her it was across the hall and even though every Palace guard was given her description and orders to detain her if they found her she slipped out of the Palace again like their security was nothing.

A month after the Heir died Lorana was surrounded by their senshi who had been given both official stories. The woman swallowed as one of the senshi, Vortex, grabbed her by the collar and shook her sharply.

"Where is she," they demanded and Lorana knew that, through some magic, they knew. "Where is Helios? Where is the Princess, the Heir, where is she?"

Hearing the words Lorana looked away, pushing the senshi off quickly. "I don't know, no one does."

"The Princess did not die three years ago," Vortex asked, her aura flaring like a wave of heat, "did she?"

Lorana hesitated but nodded finally. "She left the kingdom. We don't know where - didn't even know..." she choked on a sob then forced herself to continue, "Until she brought Helia back, that she had even been back."

The three nodded to themselves at the news, turned on their heels, and left. Within an hour word had arrived to the guard that the senshi, their defense against attacks, had left the Kingdom, stating that their mission was now to wander. They told the King and Queen the truth - their mission now was to find Helios and bring her back home. The Heir's crystal had vanished with her death and so they presumed that, since the Queen was not with child, Helios had become their Heir again. With a darkness looming on the edge of space the Heir needed to be found, brought home, and trained.

A month after they had left the Dark Kingdom invaded and the Sun Kingdom was destroyed. A month later Beryl became Queen of the Dark Kingdom and began to take over Earth. In another month's time the Moon lay destroyed.

* * *

"How," Pluto demanded, watching as Sailor SunHeart seemed to shake her head as if clearing it from an unwanted memory. Her grip on her staff tightened while she waited for a reply but, as the seconds dragged on, it seemed that SunHeart wasn't willing to give her secrets up. She had seen snippets of the past, the same glimpses of Time that she had watched from her guardianship of the Time Gate, but even those gave up none of the senshi's secrets.

"It's rather easy," SunHeart said mockingly, tugging on her bracelets to pull her gloves more firmly back onto her hands. "I didn't die. I wasn't on the Sun when the Kingdom was invaded and destroyed. The Heir - the younger Princess, died." The senshi watching her saw her eyes and lips tighten in pain. "And I didn't make it home before the Kingdom was invaded. The Sun died that day but _I_ lived." Her hands fisted, throwing Pluto a defiant look. "And now the Dark Kingdom has returned, even if your lunar advisers think it's impossible - and I'm not going to let my Kingdom's destruction go unpunished!" Her aura, a dark and vibrant red edged with white, flared and pulsed at her anger then subsided, SunHeart's jaw tightening again.

Uranus was the first to lower her weapon, staring at the senshi in a guarded mixture of confusion and uncertainty. Her eyes skirted to Pluto who, after a moment, gave a single, terse nod - and her sword lowered, vanishing when she let her grip on it loosen. "All right, SunHeart you said?" Uranus waited for SunHeart to give her a wary nod before her stance unwound, pulling herself up and looking slightly disgruntled that she didn't tower over this new senshi. "Pluto believes you are telling us the truth - and I believe it to. To that end..." Uranus stuck out a hand, ignoring Neptune's almost shocked expression. Waiting until SunHeart had tentatively grasped it, she squeezed hard, yanking the senshi close. "We'll help you. But if I find out you've been lying to us on anything your past alliances with the Moon Kingdom will mean nothing. I will kill you if you betray us, SunHeart."

In that mixed grip SunHeart shifted their hands, changing the grab so that she had just as much power in it as Uranus, returning the grasp until Uranus' eye twitched before she released it. "Don't betray me, senshi of the Moon - I want help to destroy this Dark Kingdom, nothing more. Once I have that I'll be gone." Her mouth was firm and her voice solid even as she pronounced what sounded like her own death sentence.

Uranus nodded. This felt like a warrior's pride - this, _this_ she understood. "When our Princess calls us in for the fight we will help, Sailor SunHeart."

The only senshi who remained silent and watching was Saturn. Something felt hidden, something felt wrong about this all - some part of the past, which she could not remember or had never known, was missing. She had heard nothing of the Princess who Pluto named her as in the past, from what dim memories she could recall. She would have to ask Michiru-mama later what her mirror could tell them, until she could put her heart at ease.


End file.
